History Main / UnbreakableWeapons

* The Moonraker/Military Laser in ''VideoGame/{{GoldenEye|1997}}'' for the UsefulNotes/Nintendo64. This can prompt people running around holding Z, making a particularly annoying noise.

* While SystemShock2 in general is notorious for its rapidly degrading weapons, there's a psychic power that makes them indestructible as long as it's active.

** All weapons in the game qualify for this trope in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemGaiden'' and ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates''.

* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'': ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'' has the breakable Giant's Knife as an exception, and wooden shields can be incinerated in all of the 3D games, but this trope applies to almost all the standard items and equipment in the games. Like-likes throughout the series can often eat your shields, but that's not exactly breaking them. In fact, in later games they'll drop them intact if they're defeated quickly enough.
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'' has only one unbreakable shield, available from Lanayru's challenge.

* The Diviner weapons in ''VideoGame/RivieraThePromisedLand'' are unbreakable WeaponOfChoice for [[TheChosenMany the Grim Angels]]. The protagonist Ein wields a holy sword named Einherjar while the antagonists use magical lances.

* ''VideoGame/{{Drakengard}}'s'' weapons are UnbreakableWeapons. Kind of funny in that some of the weapons themselves are broken, but won't break further.

* Another real life example is a British [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centurion_(tank)#Nuclear_tests Centurion tank]], registration number 169041, which belonged to the Australian army. It was built in 1951 and in 1953 it was used as a target in a nuclear weapons test, in which it was placed with its engine running 500m away from a 9.1kt blast (about 2/3 the yield of Little Boy, the bomb dropped on [[UsefulNotes/AtomicBombingsOfHiroshimaAndNagasaki Hiroshima]].) After the test, the tank was badly damaged and if it had had a crew, they would have been killed by the shock wave, but, amazingly, it was still driveable; it had lost some armour plate and some components such as periscopes were sandblasted, but the engine had stopped only because it had run out of fuel. It was subsequently decontaminated, repaired, nicknamed "The Atomic Tank", and returned to active service with the Australian army. It was deployed years later in UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar, in which it ''survived a direct hit from an RPG''; the crew were all wounded but survived, and the tank remained battleworthy. It was eventually retired, and is now given a place of honour in an Australian barracks: the only known tank to have survived atomic tests and to have gone on protecting its users in a combat zone. Unbreakable Weapon, indeed.
* Shotguns tend to be this generally. They have very low chamber/barrel pressures, even lower than ''pistols'' in fact. This combined with their usually strong frames, simple actions and smoothbore barrels mean they will not wear out even after firing tens of thousands of shells. In some cases the wooden furniture wears out ''before'' the action does.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands 2}}'', Marcus Kincaid, Pandora's resident gun runner, is introduced in a cutscene where a resident of Sanctuary asks for a refund for a malfunctioning gun. Marcus analyzes it a little, then shoots the customer's leg. It (possibly unintentionally) lampshades that, both in this game and [[VideoGame/{{Borderlands}} its predecessor]], all the guns on the planet work ''no matter what'': even getting swallowed by animals with bile capable of dissolving '''bank vault doors''' won't cause the weapon to so much as misfire even once.

* Franchise/WonderWoman's lasso is unbreakable, and this is actually the only explicit power of the lasso that has remained constant since its introduction. On the exceedingly rare occasion the lasso encounters a weapon capable of damaging it it self repairs.

[[folder:Action Adventure Games]]
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'' had the breakable Giant's Knife as an exception, and wooden shields can be incinerated in all of the 3D games, but this trope applies to almost all the standard items and equipment in the games. Like-likes throughout the series can often eat your shields, but that's not exactly breaking them. In fact, in later games they'll drop them intact if they're defeated quickly enough.
** ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword Skyward Sword]]'' has only one unbreakable shield, available from Lanayru's challenge.
** ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild Breath of the Wild]]'' tends to [[BreakableWeapons the other extreme]], with only one unbreakable weapon: [[spoiler:the Master Sword, of course]]. Even then, it's played with; it can still break, but will reform after some time, and will never break against [[spoiler:any of the bosses, since they're aspects of Calamity Ganon, the sword's intended target]].
* ''[[VideoGame/RiseOfTheKasai Mark of Kri and Rise of the Kasai]]'' play this straight. You can bash your sword against armor, other swords, and stone walls--you can block a heavy axe swung by a MightyGlacier with a pair of knives, but your weapons will never break. Not even the wooden ones.
* Most of the games in the ''VideoGame/LegacyOfKain'' series play this straight; in ''Blood Omen'', none of the weapons can be broken. In the ''Soul Reaver'' games (I could be wrong on this one) none of the weapons you pick up--many of which are ceremonial or even decorative--will break, though you'll lose them. ''Defiance'' also features an unbreakble sword in the form of Kain's Reaver. ''Blood Omen 2'' is the only game to feature breakable weapons, and even then, they're only breakable when ''you're'' using them; enemies can block your (superhumanly strong) attacks infinitely without them breaking. However, even this game features an unbreakable weapon in the form of the Soul Reaver itself, which is obtained in the last bossfight or by a cheat code. Being unbreakable is a plot point for the Soul Reaver, however; it's also the only weapon that is broken as part of the plot. Whenever it strikes itself (time travel), one version will break.
* While armor can degrade in ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'', none of Ezio's weapons ever break. It is somewhat justified in the case of the iconic Hidden Blade, whose construction is far ahead of its time.
** The Hidden Blade does break... in a cutscene, two games later.
* If you use a cheat in ''VideoGame/TheMatrixPathOfNeo'' every weapon becomes indestructible, unlike in regular gameplay which has BreakableWeapons.

* Something of a real life example would be the AK-47, or at least if one goes by reputation. Many a story has been told where some ungodly abuse has befallen an AK-47 rifle, usually ending with "I cleared the chamber, loaded a magazine and it fired like new". The reality is, while the AK-47 ''is'' a durable rifle, it can still jam without proper care. Where it is made also affects quality, since obviously an AK made in a professional factory in Eastern Europe is going to be better than something a tin-pot dictator made with unskilled labor out of pig iron.

* In the cinematic rulesets for ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}'', guns never jam, swords never dull, knives never break and so on. Interestingly this has no effect on shields, the default assumption is that shields cannot be broken by any force. The latter, however, is due to the RuleOfFun, as the optional ruleset that provides for it, like [[LoadsAndLoadsOfRules many other optional rule sets in the game]], can become a headache to manage.

* WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack and his buddy/rival Scotsman have magic enhanced/blessed swords that are designed to be freaking tough. That neither of them shatters the other's weapon when they first clash is their first clue that they may ''both'' be holy warriors (of a sort).

* Cut Man's blades in ''Webcomic/MSPaintMasterpieces'' which is true to the games' WordOfGod.
* Japanese Tables largely thanks to MemeticMutation deriving from [[Wrestling/{{FMW}} Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling]]'s use of tables that proved to be harder to break than car windows, and the rest of the car for that matter. Just ask any Pro Wrestler who nearly broke their backs on those things!
* In the ''WebAnimation/DeathBattle'' between [[VideoGame/NinjaGaiden Ryu Hayabusa]] and [[VideoGame/{{Strider}} Strider Hiryu]], Ryu's Dragon Sword is described as being practically indestructible [[spoiler:and proved to be the only weapon in his arsenal that could withstand the [[HotBlade heat of Hiryu's cypher]]]].

* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'': [[AbsurdlySharpBlade Heron-marked swords]] and other Power-wrought weapons [[spoiler: like Perrin's hammer]] are nearly indestructible, and never need to be sharpened.
** Though early on the caveat is mentioned that not all Heron-marked swords are Power-wrought, since the means to forge them was removed.
* ''Manga/OnePiece'': Post-[[spoiler:TimeSkip]], [[spoiler:Dracule Mihawk]] taught Roronoa Zoro to master his [[KiManipulation Haki]] so he'd no longer break his swords upon facing a too strong enemy.

** The trend continues in ''VideoGame/DeadSpace3'', although a [[ItemCrafting change in gameplay]] meant that weapons now really are weapons, though jury-rigged from 200-years old parts salvaged from decaying shipwrecks and outposts on a hostile planet. Apparently, humans in this 'verse are really good at RagnarokProofing[[note]]which leads to a bit of FridgeBrilliance when one considers how strapped for resources mankind is. Of course they'd try and make everything they build as durable as possible to save on materials wherever possible[[/note]].

* ''VideoGame/DeadSpace'' and ''VideoGame/DeadSpace2'' had weapons you could beat enemies to death with and they would still be in perfect mechanical condition.

* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'' has all weapons unbreakable, in contrast to past title's BreakableWeapons tradition.

* ''StarWars: KnightsOfTheOldRepublic''. Most physical melee weapons are alloyed with a supposedly-rare {{Unobtainium}} to keep enemy lightsabers from cutting through them like butter. Firearms of all sorts have infinite amounts of the appropriate ammo. Lightsabers... are about as indestructible as you'd expect. They're still {{Game Breaker}}s.
** Lampshaded in ''KOTOR 2'', when you meet a Mandalorian who had his spare ammo eaten, his gun's ammo depleted, then broke the gun by using it as a club. He points out that he was careless because, hey, when was the last time YOU ran out of ammo?

* Something of a real life example would be the AK-47, or at least if one goes by reputation. Many a story has been told where some ungodly abuse has befallen an AK-47 rifle, usually ending with "I cleared the chamber, loaded a magazine and it fired like new". The reality is, while the AK-47 ''is'' a durable rifle, it can still jam without proper care. Where it is made also affects quality, since obviously an AK made in a professional factory in Eastern Europe is going to be better than something a tin-pot dictator made with unskilled labor out of pig iron.

[[folder: Action Adventure Games ]]

** ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword Skyward Sword]]'' has only one unbreakable shield, only available from Lanayru's challenge.

[[folder: Beat 'em Up ]]

[[folder: First-Person Shooter ]]

[[folder: Hack and Slash ]]

* The original ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}}'' had a durability exploit in which, through the use of Hidden Shrines, the player can raise the durability of an item to the specific value of 255, which the game recognizes as indestructible.

[[folder: [=MMORPGs=] ]]

[[folder: Role-Playing Games ]]

[[folder: Third-Person Shooter ]]

[[folder: Turn-Based Strategy ]]

** ''Awakening'' introduces the skill "Armsthrift", allowing any character that can become a [[JackOfAllStats Mercenary]] to possibly keep a use of their weapon. [[GuideDangIt By messing with the Inheritance system a bit]], [[GameBreaker it becomes possible to have this go off every single time.]]

[[folder: Other ]]

* Played straight in ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress''; you can wallop a Bronze Colossus with a wooden training sword as long as you like without fear of it breaking, not that you'll get in enough hits to really make this trope noticeable before it clobbers you, and simple wooden shields can deflect the fiery breath of a dragon without noticeable damage. This trope's opposite, as well as wear and tear on armour and weapons that has to be mended, is on the to-do list for a future release.

[[folder: Non-Video Game Examples ]]

By definition, if video games don't have BreakableWeapons, they have the exact opposite: UnbreakableWeapons. No matter how many times you rapidly fire that gun in full-auto mode, it never malfunctions nor does it ever require any sort of maintenance. Swords never break no matter how many times you foolishly use it to strike armored enemies. Unless, of course, [[GameplayAndStorySegregation the plot calls for it]].

[[folder: Beat Em Up ]]

[[folder: First Person Shooter ]]

* The Moonraker/Military Laser in ''VideoGame/{{Goldeneye 007}}'' for the Nintendo 64. This can prompt people running around holding Z, making a particularly annoying noise.

[[folder: Hack And Slash ]]

[[folder: MMORP Gs ]]

[[folder: Role Playing Games ]]

[[folder: Third Person Shooter ]]

[[folder: Turn Based Strategy ]]

* ''Franchise/DevilMayCry'' deserves special mention, considering some of the downright ridiculous things that Dante does with his sword, such as ''jamming it into the ground and using it to spin around repeatedly, continuously twisting the sword through a foot of solid concrete.'' However, since it was said before that Dante fires bullets from guns using his demon energy, and pretty much all of his weapons are demonic in nature, this may not be too much of a stretch for some.

* Cut Man's blades in MSPaintMasterpieces which is true to the games' WordOfGod.

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'' usually has one or two unbreakable artifact weapons per game, as an exception to otherwise being a superlative example of BreakableWeapons.
** 1, 3 and 11 (all remakes of each other for the most part) have an item that makes any weapon held by the character wielding it unbreakable.
** Near the end of ''Radiant Dawn'', you get to make ''any weapon you want'' unbreakable for the rest of the game, so long as a character sent into the final campaign can use that weapon. This includes long-range tomes that normally have only five uses.

** All weapons in the game qualify for this trope in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates'' and ''VideoGame/FireEmblemGaiden''.

* VideoGame/DeadSpace and VideoGame/DeadSpace2 had weapons you could beat enemies to death with and they would still be in perfect mechanical condition.

* ''FireEmblem'' usually has one or two unbreakable artifact weapons per game, as an exception to otherwise being a superlative example of BreakableWeapons.

** Near the end of ''Radiant Dawn'', you get to make ''any weapon you want'' unbreakable for the rest of the game, so long as a character sent into the final campaign can use that weapon. This includes long-range tomes that normally have only five uses are so.

* Special honors ought to go to Gordon Freeman's guns in ''VideoGame/{{Half-Life}}''. Any weapon that can still happily fire at full auto despite being immersed in water, toxic waste, massively radioactive liquid that damages the HEV suit, fire, and cold intense enough to cause death in less than a minute ''deserves'' the unbreakable title.

* ''[[RiseOfTheKasai Mark of Kri and Rise of the Kasai]]'' play this straight. You can bash your sword against armor, other swords, and stone walls--you can block a heavy axe swung by a MightyGlacier with a pair of knives, but your weapons will never break. Not even the wooden ones.

* ''Literature/WheelOfTime'': [[AbsurdlySharpBlade Heron-marked swords]] and other Power-wrought weapons [[spoiler: like Perrin's hammer]] are nearly indestructible, and never need to be sharpened.