History Main / SoloCharacterRun

* Possible to do in the Empires subset of ''DynastyWarriors'' games, ''DynastyWarriors 6 Empires'' outright rewards you for doing this for one battle on [[NintendoHard Master]] or the hard '''[[HarderThanHard HELL]]''' difficulty (that's '''CHAOS''' for everyone outside Japan). needless to say, doing this for one battle on the higher difficulties is hard enough. Doing it for every battle on '''HELL''' puts you on par with [[MemeticBadass Lu]] [[PrecisionFStrike Fucking]] [[ThatOneBoss Bu]], [[BagOfSpilling if only for the fact that your stats are not carried over between]] [[NewGamePlus consecutive games]] [[GlassCannon and you have a high chance of being 1-Hit-KO'd early on]].

[[caption-width-right:330:'''Chaos:''' EverybodysDeadDave.]]

** This can be done in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' except when plot-necessary ([[spoiler:Cloud is incapacitated for a period, and there are some boss fights that must be fought with specific characters]]). It's somewhat trivial if you use Cloud, since the Yoshiyuki sword you pick up in Rocket Town powers up if you have dead people in your party. It's balanced out by a couple bosses that have attacks that trap your character and require intervention from your dead party members, netting you an instant game over. The first, Reno can be taken out if you power level early, usually getting Cloud to unlock Meteorain long before you would otherwise get it. The other, Carry Armor, can quickly become ThatOneBoss, since it will often open the battle with Arm Grab, ending the fight before it can even begin. SaveScumming can be considered mandatory for him.

* ''FinalFantasy''

* Both ''FinalFantasyLegend2'' and ''FinalFantasyLegend3'' revive dead characters at the start of every battle. How do you deal with that? By using codes to petrify most of your team, and any fifth characters to boot! Just be prepared to deal with extreme difficulty, even compared to other solos.[[note]]In [=FFL2=], beating even ''the weakest monsters'' is a pain and a half if you're a solo human or mutant, and in [=FFL3=] expect to grind thirty or so levels for a late boss; for reference, when playing normally you beat the final boss somewhere between level 32 and level 40![[/note]]

* Because ''Franchise/{{Disgaea}}'' doesn't give LeakedExperience, it can be simpler to power level one of the main characters and stomp the rest of the game rather than try to balance levels across a party of ten characters. This is almost a requirement in the post-game, because levelling and appropriately equipping just one character takes an absurd amount of time, even if you aren't trying for perfection. This restricts the options to using one horribly overlevelled character and nine decoys or abusing the base-panel combat mechanics and Enemy Level Up Geo-Effects to create a team of poorly equipped Lv. 9999 monsters.

The difficulty level for this kind of run can vary wildly, depending on the character and the game. For example, [=RPGs=] frequently divide the experience gained from fights evenly among the surviving characters, which means that [[OneManParty a solo character can gain levels very quickly early on]], thereby breezing through the early game. However, later on, exponential requirements for gaining levels mean that the character is not nearly so relatively powerful compared to a full-on party. There are also many cases where enemies can induce deadly status effects on party members, which can be easily rectified in normal playthroughs by having other party members heal the afflicted character, but in solo challenges are as good as a GameOver.

The difficulty level for this kind of run can vary wildly, depending on the character and the game. For example, [=RPGs=] frequently divide the experience gained from fights evenly among the surviving characters, which means that [[OneManParty a solo character can gain levels very quickly early on]], thereby breezing through the early game. However, later on, exponential requirements for gaining levels mean that the character is not nearly so relatively powerful compared to a full-on party.

* Because ''VideoGame/{{Disgaea}}'' doesn't give LeakedExperience, it can be simpler to power level one of the main characters and stomp the rest of the game rather than try to balance levels across a party of ten characters. This is almost a requirement in the post-game, because levelling and appropriately equipping just one character takes an absurd amount of time, even if you aren't trying for perfection. This restricts the options to using one horribly overlevelled character and nine decoys or abusing the base-panel combat mechanics and Enemy Level Up Geo-Effects to create a team of poorly equipped Lv. 9999 monsters.

** This is very popular in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyI''. A solo Fighter is regarded as easiest. Black Belt is not difficult when massively overleveled, Red Mage has both good offense and defense plus multi-targeting black magic, White Mage has the advantage of the [=RUSE=](Blink) spell, and Black Mage has multi-targeting black magic starting from the third town. By far the hardest, Thief has to grind halfway to the level cap (with poor offense and defense the whole time) before being able to have a CHANCE to defeat the fourth mini-boss. Nobody has ever gotten past the fifth one.

* Both FinalFantasyLegend2 and FinalFantasyLegend3 revive dead characters at the start of every battle. How do you deal with that? By using codes to petrify most of your team, and any fifth characters to boot! Just be prepared to deal with extreme difficulty, even compared to other solos.[[note]]In [=FFL2=], beating even ''the weakest monsters'' is a pain and a half if you're a solo human or mutant, and in [=FFL3=] expect to grind thirty or so levels for a late boss; for reference, when playing normally you beat the final boss somewhere between level 32 and level 40![[/note]]

* This is what a large part of the community says the easiest way to beat the original ''FrontMission''.

* You want a really hard one of these? Try the original ''VideoGame/XCom'', sending only 1 soldier to each battlescape. Also, an achievement in ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown requires you to clear a UFO crash site with only one soldier... on Classic or Impossible difficulty. Yeah.

* You want a really hard one of these? Try the original ''{{X-COM}}'', sending only 1 soldier to each battlescape.
** Also, an achievement in the remake requires you to clear a UFO crash site with only one soldier... on Classic or Impossible difficulty. Yeah.

* ''AlienSwarm'' requires a console command, (normally requires 2 players minimum) but it is entirely possible to play every level solo. Including ones where you need to stop and protect the tech while he [[HollywoodHacking hacks]] a door or computer.

* Through the use of console commands, people have tried solo runs in ''Left4Dead'' by kicking bots from the game and had various levels of success. Valve seemed to have noticed and introduced a [[GameMod mutation]] for Left 4 Dead 2 called Last Man on Earth, where you play alone against only special infected and can only be knocked down once before true death applies.

* Both FinalFantasyLegend2 and FinalFantasyLegend3 revive dead characters at the start of every battle. How do you deal with that? By using codes to petrify most of your team, and any fifth characters to boot! Just be prepared to deal with extreme difficulty, even compared to other solos.[[hottip:*:In [=FFL2=], beating even ''the weakest monsters'' is a pain and a half if you're a solo human or mutant, and in [=FFL3=] expect to grind thirty or so levels for a late boss; for reference, when playing normally you beat the final boss somewhere between level 32 and level 40!]]

** This is very popular in the original ''FinalFantasy''. A solo Fighter is regarded as easiest. Black Belt is not difficult when massively overleveled, Red Mage has both good offense and defense plus multi-targeting black magic, White Mage has the advantage of the [=RUSE=](Blink) spell, and Black Mage has multi-targeting black magic starting from the third town. By far the hardest, Thief has to grind halfway to the level cap (with poor offense and defense the whole time) before being able to have a CHANCE to defeat the fourth mini-boss. Nobody has ever gotten past the fifth one.

* Prior to generation V, ''{{Pokemon}}'' is actually ''easier'' on a Solo Pokemon Run, since an over-leveled starter with a sufficiently versatile move set can overwhelm pretty much anything. Type disadvantages cease to matter when you're thirty levels higher than anything else. The only hitch is that you'll probably need a few PP-restoring items for the Elite Four, and a second Pokémon whose only purpose is to hold [[AbilityRequiredToProceed mandatory HM moves]] (no starter Pokemon can learn all the required ones anyway). With the new experience system in Generation V, a solo-mon run has become quite a bit more challenging.
* A popular method of establishing exactly how [[GameBreaker broken]] the [[MagicKnight Arcane Warrior]] class is in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins''.
** Possible, but more difficult with a stealth-based Rogue.
* Extremely common in the ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' series, especially ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 1}}''. This is mostly because party [=NPCs=] in the first game did not level up and were liabilities due to friendly fire and obstructing doors or corridors.
** Infact, it is actually EASIER to complete the original games without help since "companions" had a notorious tendecy of SHOOTING YOU accidentally, screwing up quest triggers, and dying for no inexplicable reason. Dogmeat was especially bad, as it was a challenge to get his limited AI to avoid being fried by door lasers.

** This can be done in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' except when plot-necessary ([[spoiler:when Cloud is out of his mind in Mideel and Tifa, then Cid take over]]). It's somewhat trivial if you use Cloud, since the Yoshiyuki sword you pick up in Rocket Town powers up if you have dead people in your party. It's balanced out by three bosses (Reno, Bottomswell, Carry Armor) that have attacks that trap your character and require intervention from your dead party members, netting you an instant game over.
*** It's possible to get through those bosses without using anyone except Cloud. The key is you have to kill them before they can attack (done by power leveling, Meteorain is needed before you leave the Train Graveyard in order to beat Reno).'
*** SaveScumming can be considered mandatory for those three. Reno and Bottomswell can be taken care of without much hassle, but Carry Armor can quickly become ThatOneBoss, since it will often open the battle with Arm Grab, ending the fight before it can even begin.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' has a variation, with people only following this as long the required character is around, meaning someone that joins early and rejoins early like the Figato twins is the "closest" to the feel of the challenge. [[AttackAttackAttack Umaro]] is considered to be the only one that can't win it, [[TierInducedScrappy for obvious reasons]].