History Main / StoryDrivenInvulnerability

** You're allowed to fire on the pursuing Hunter-Chopper during the hovercraft section in ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'', but until you reach the area where the final confrontation with it takes place all you can do is temporarily drive it away.

* Stand-up comedian Hannibal Buress discusses the trope [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIxY27x3Y1Q here]], talking about how he likes to play ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' and goes on dates with women in the game:

* Creator/HannibalBuress discusses the trope [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIxY27x3Y1Q here]], talking about how he likes to play ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' and tries to kill girlfriends who are rude to him, but can't.

* Famously averted in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid 3''. The fight with The End [[SkippableBoss can be bypassed entirely]] if you manage to snipe him in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it segment long before you are intended to boss-fight him. He dies from one bullet (in the actual BossBattle, he can take half a dozen to the head) and the zone where you'd usually fight him is filled with Ocelot soldiers, which, depending on the player, might make the fight even harder. Be aware, if you decide to try this, that The End's camo and gun become LostForever, since you never properly fight him.

A videogame character just won't die until the plot (usually in-game) says they can die.

Subtrope of PlotArmor. It has its own subtrope in GameplayAllyImmortality. See also HopelessBossFight, where there's usually a reason or HandWave for their invincibility.

* Variation of this in ''TimeCrisis 4'' when you're facing Jack Mathers (the second boss). At the start of each life bar, he'll mix it up with William Rush, during which he doesn't attack you at all. It's actually possible (and in fact pretty easy) to do the equivalent of a whole life bar's worth of damage in this time. However, you can only take off the green portion of the bar, about two thirds. The remainder doesn't turn green until he starts attacking you. Obviously this was done so all the action and dialogue between Mathers and Rush would be completed (and so there'd actually be some challenge to this battle, of course). This is true of the other bosses, but Mathers is the most blatant example. This also happened in ''Crisis Zone'', and previous ''Time Crisis'' games, but that was just so the bosses would live long enough to use all their attacks.

A videogame character just won't die until the plot says they can die.

* Several of the pirates in the prologue of ''VideoGame/{{Uncharted}}'' are invulnerable until the plot decides it's good and ready for you to kill them. Even with the one-hit kills cheat active, they can bleed, but they won't die. The same goes for the final boss.

** After beating the robotic Sonic in Sonic 2, Robotnik will flee from his control room into the cockpit of the final boss. Despite being the fastest thing alive, you cannot catch up to him; he will magically speed up if you are too close, even if you spin dash at him. [[ThatOneBoss You'll probably see it a lot, too]].

* In ''Franchise/{{Fable}}'', the "hero" and KarmaHoudini Reaver cannot be killed, much to the chagrin of many players who felt his actions were at least as bad as the actual villain half the time. The fact that his character was voiced by Stephen Fry gives you some indication that the writers wanted him to stick around despite his obvious evilness. Being forced into being his ally (Fable 1) and having him as your advisor (Fable 2) just makes things worse. Granted, he's a funny character from the player's point of view, but in a roleplaying sense there is little justification for your character not wanting to kill him, especially given all the times he's tried to kill your character.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Condemned}}: Criminal Origins'', the first half of the game is spent following a deranged killer through various rundown buildings and an abandoned subway station. You often get glimpses of him as you track him down, and there's at least two specific points in which you actually get a good look at him and have an opportunity to shoot at him. He is, of course, invincible.

* In ''SyphonFilter'', for no apparent reason (no full body armor here), Rhoemer is immune to bullets, even headshots and explosions, and can only be killed with gas grenades. Perhaps this is to prevent you from killing him too soon.

* At the very end of the 2009 ''VideoGame/{{Wolfenstein}}'', after killing the final boss, you're teleported into a [[CollapsingLair collapsing corridor]] where you have a clear shot at the Nazi Commander BigBad as he flees away from you towards the exit. You can actually pump several bullets into his back if you're quick enough, but he'll just keep running and quickly escapes.

** The first ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' on the [[SegaGenesis Genesis\Mega Drive]] had you chase Robotnik up a DeathCourse with rising water (and the [[ClassicVideoGameScrewYous fireballs go through the water!]]) It's hard to get hits on him, and he acts like he's getting hurt, but he just leaves after you finish the death course.

** In the first ''VideoGame/DevilSurvivor'', there's Beldr, who was [[ThatOneBoss infamous]] for this and likely inspired Dubhe's scenario. Being based on the Nordic god Baldur and his myth, Beldr was [[NoSell immune to all forms of damage]], [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard including the otherwise-unblockable]] [[NonElemental Almighty]] element. Unlike Dubhe, it isn't that a plot-related event makes him lose his invulnerabilty--it's that the plot leads you to obtain the ''only'' way to hurt him: [[spoiler:by hitting him with Devil's Fuge--mistletoe. A ''fake'' [[ItMakesSenseInContext mistletoe phone-strap]].]] He also happens to be [[ForMassiveDamage weak]] to it, but you were limited to one character being able to hurt him in this manner, making his already tough boss fight into ''also'' an EscortMission for your protagonist.

* While [[spoiler:Captain Hamilton]]'s [=MiG=] 1.44 can be "shot down" in the penultimate mission "Aces" of ''AceCombat5TheUnsungWar'' in the sense that the player will receive credit for the "kill," he doesn't actually go down, as he has to tail and attack your flight throughout the climactic tunnel chase. (Since this is from behind, he's unattackable and can only be fought before destroying of the enemy ground targets and triggering the tunnel opening.)
* In ''AceCombat04ShatteredSkies'', the Yellow Squadron are invincible until the Stonehenge mission.
** If you hit them in various missions (like the titular mission 8, Shattered Skies), they will comment, asking "who was it that shot me?" They only exit the battle, but you can't ever shoot them down until the mission at Stonehenge.
* In ''AceCombatJointAssault'' [[spoiler: Varcolac Squadron]] have the same deal; you won't actually kill any of them until the final mission.

* The ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius'' duology has a cross-game example. Sephiran shows up as an NPC prisoner in one chapter of ''Path of Radiance''. He turns out to be very important in the sequel ''Radiant Dawn'', namely [[spoiler: he's the BigBad]], so he has a skill that makes him immune to all damage. [[spoiler: By the time you fight him in the sequel, you have the power to negate that skill.]] The BlackKnight is also an example in ''Path of Radiance'': he appears as an enemy unit in two chapters, and on both occasions you don't yet have the weapon that can damage him, so he's invulnerable and [[HeroKiller you'd better keep your units well away.]]

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* In ''MedalOfHonor: Frontline'', Sturmgeist is invincible until the final level. In the Golden Lion level from the same game, a Panzerschreck soldier is scripted to kill your truck driver near the end of the level. He's within sniping range, but shots on him won't register before he fires.

* In ''VideoGame/JusticeLeagueHeroesTheFlash'', TheFlash can't even attack his ArchEnemy Zoom while chasing him through obstacles. This doesn't last very long, thankfully, and he can be damaged normally as soon as the path clears out. Additionally, summoning heroes from the JusticeLeague during a boss fight won't do any damage unless the boss was in the vulnerable state anyway.

* In ''{{Halo 2}}'', each time you damage the Heretic Leader, he retreats into the ventilation ducts to give a certain dialogue to the Arbiter, and during this time he is invincible. Most noticeable during the glitch where he gets stuck under the balcony, where after a minute, he turns into one of the holodrone spheres himself. Needless to say, he is also invincible if you try to shoot him while he's running to the shielded room.