History NotTheIntendedUse / VideoGames

* In ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}''and ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon 2}}'', there is one [[LimitBreak Special Weapon]] in each game that has a direct benefit--Echolocator in the first game reveals the locations of all opponents to the entire team for several seconds, and Bomb Launcher in the second game grants the player an unlimited number of bombs until the Special Weapon meter runs out--but also provide you with an instant ink refill, overriding absolutely ''everything'' that could delay it, including cooldown time when deploying things like Splash Walls or Squid Beakons during which you're ordinarily prohibited from refilling your ink. This secondary benefit can be a lifesaver for players running critically low on ink and don't have time to replenish their ink under normal circumstances. This is especially true for Bomb Launcher in the Salmon Run mode: As large numbers of Salmonid come at the players at once, waiting for the bombs to detonate is much too slow, and being able to shoot and shoot, then instantly refill and keep shooting is more useful.

* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'', jumping in water before getting the Zora's Flippers drops Link back where he was before he jumped in the water and gives him MercyInvincibility... without actually damaging him. This makes wandering around in areas near water a lot easier; just jump right on in before you get hurt. Getting through Zora's River is made much easier with this exploit, though admittedly it's the last possible place you can use it (Zora's River is the very place you get the Flippers that cancel the exploit, which are themselves necessary to complete the game). Later Zelda games that require Flippers to swim either damage Link when he falls into water or drop him off at the beginning of the room (or both).

* The Deku Stick in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'' was intended to be used as a makeshift torch to light other torches or burn webs. While you could attack with the stick, it would break upon impact. Players would later discover that the stick's attack power matched the ''Master Sword'' and even more so if it was used as a jump attack since jump strikes do more damage. This makes nearly all the bosses fought as child Link a complete joke.

** The [[GratuitousNinja Ninja class]] in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI'' was originally supposed to be a StealthExpert [[TheStrategist Strategist]] attacking from the shadows. This is most evident in the effects of its signature armor, which actually lowers enemy focus on the ninja. However, using the [[DoppelgangerSpin Utsusemi]] special causes the ninja to gain shadows that absorb enemy attacks. Coupled with its [[HighSpeedMissileDodge superb evasion]], the ninja is actually considered one of the best tanks in the game, right up there with the [[MightyGlacier heavily-armored]] [[KnightInShiningArmor Paladin]].

* ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'': A technique known as "checkpoint dashing" can be used to circumvent difficult sections of an area. Many checkpoints exist physically in the game, and trigger as soon as the player reaches them. As such, the player can simply rush through a section to trigger the checkpoint, die, and continue from the next scene without any enemies hounding them. In a few places, you don't even need to physically be at the checkpoint; if you manage to spawn a combat drone close enough to the checkpoint, the cutscene will still trigger.

** [[CoolGate Nether portals]] not only can be used to go back and forth between the Nether, but they're also extensively used among the fanbase to travel extremely long distances between two points in the Overworld 8 times faster.

*** The old [[StanceSystem Cleric Stance]], which swapped a healer's Mind (healing power) with Intelligence (magic attack), was intended for use while advancing solo quests. However, its only cost was a 5-second cooldown, which it shared with nothing else, and healers are already encouraged to take potshots at the enemy when their party doesn't actually need healing, so enterprising players would rapidly swap Cleric Stance on and off to make sure these potshots were as damaging as possible. The devs banned it from PVP where it was a GameBreaker, but otherwise ''tried'' to neither discourage it nor make "healer DPS" mandatory, but the playerbase shunned healers who refused to DPS during inevitable downtime, so as of 4.0 healer spell damage is calculated from Mind all the time and Cleric Stance has a completely new effect nobody cares about.

* In ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'', anything trapped under a falling drawbridge is removed from existence. Forget the obvious utility in fortress defense -- 'atom smashers' are best used to delete the tons of waste rock that excavating your fortress produces.

** The new Runes Reforged system introduced at the end of 2017 was based heavily around discovering these, to the end that one category was named Inspiration and described as 'Creative tools and rule-bending'. For example, a new Sorcery keystone called Phase Rush grants a significant movement speed boost after hitting an enemy champion with three attacks or abilities. Being a Sorcery Keystone, its most obvious use is on champions like Karthus or Cassiopeia that use a lot of smaller spells [[GradualGrinder that add up in damage]] where Phase Rush lets you keep up with fleeing enemies. Alternatively, if you have a champion with good crowd control (eg. a stun), it can be used for cheap harass and opponent frustration - run in, impair them so they can't hit you back, do some easy damage and then use your Keystone to run away again. This particularly syncs with another Rune, Approach Velocity, which grants a similar movement boost towards a movement-impaired champion. Phase Rush gives you a boost no matter what way you're running - one rune gets you in, the other rune gets you out.

* There are a number of examples in the ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' games (some covered under SequenceBreaking). One of the best is the dash-jump in ''MetroidPrime''; intended for dodging, it turned out to be incredibly useful for platforming. Its most dramatic use is in getting the Space Jump immediately after landing on Tallon IV, which breaks the game wide open. The rereleases make this trick harder (though not quite impossible), and the dash is {{Nerf}}ed somewhat in the sequels.

** One of the new Keystone Runes introduced at the end of 2017 was Phase Rush, which grants a significant movement speed boost after hitting an enemy champion with three attacks or abilities. Being a Sorcery Keystone, its most obvious use is on champions like Karthus or Cassiopeia that use a lot of smaller spells [[GradualGrinder that add up in damage]] where Phase Rush lets you keep up with fleeing enemies. Alternatively, if you have a champion with good crowd control (eg. a stun), it can be used for cheap harass and opponent frustration - run in, impair them so they can't hit you back, do some easy damage and then use your Keystone to run away again. This particularly syncs with another Rune, Approach Velocity, which grants a similar movement boost towards a movement-impaired champion. Phase Rush gives you a boost no matter what way you're running - one rune gets you in, the other rune gets you out.

** One of the new Keystone Runes introduced at the end of 2017 was Phase Rush, which grants a significant movement speed boost after hitting an enemy champion with three attacks or abilities. Being a Sorcery Keystone, its most obvious use is on champions like Karthus or Cassiopeia that use a lot of smaller spells [[GradualGrinder that add up in damage]] where Phase Rush lets you keep up with fleeing enemies. Alternatively, if you have a champion with good crowd control (eg. a stun), it can be used for cheap harass and opponent frustration - run in, impair them so they can't hit you back, do some easy damage and then use your Keystone to run away again. This particularly syncs with another Rune, Approach Velocity - which grants a similar movement boost towards a movement-impaired champion. Phase Rush gives you a boost no matter what way you're running.

*** Necromage is a perk in the Restoration tree that increases the effects of all spells on the undead. Situational, but not too bad on its face, given that a great fraction of the toughest enemies in the game are the various draugr lords, dragon priests and vampires. However, it turns out that the word "spells" can actually encompass a wide variety of effects, including Shouts, potions, gear enchantments, some perks, standing stones... And since there AintNoRule saying that only NPCs are affected by the perk, a vampire Dovahkiin (technically undead) can merrily proceed to abuse the perk to become godlike.

* ''VideoGame/BelowtheRoot'' is an old example of a perfectly good loophole. Certain hostile NPCs wander the map, and if your character runs into them, they'll be instantly transported to a prison house of the hostile character's faction. Seeing as you lose no time by being captured, it's fairly easy to escape the prison houses if you have the right tool (the Nekom house actually contains the best tool to escape, so if you have the key or have learned telekinesis, it's yours for the taking), and the houses themselves are not that far from important locations in the game, the kidnapping mechanic can easily be turned into rapid transit.
* In ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaHarmonyOfDespair'', the Yorick soul is meant to be a projectile that can be hit into enemies; however, most players use the Yorick soul to act as a double-jump of sorts, by launching the projectile upwards and then jump-kicking off the projectile. The Puppeteer soul is also often used to trigger glitches that can send Soma (the only character whocan use the Souls) great distances quickly.

** The cooking system in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel'' can be abused for free money. Every character has dishes they're best at making, which have a high chance of producing a "great" or "unique" version of that dish. Some of these sell for more than the cost of their ingredients. Elliot's Simple Omelette gets the most use this way, as both him and the recipe are available very early.

*** [[StanceSystem Cleric Stance]], which swaps a healer's Mind (healing power) with Intelligence (magic attack), was intended for use while advancing solo quests. However, its only cost is a 5-second cooldown, which it shares with nothing else, and healers are already encouraged to take potshots at the enemy when their party doesn't actually need healing, so enterprising players will rapidly swap Cleric Stance on and off to make sure these potshots are as damaging as possible. The devs have banned Cleric Stance from PVP, where it's a GameBreaker, but otherwise left this trick alone, as they like it too much to try to stop it. But they don't balance dungeon content around "healer DPS" either, since they don't want to ''force'' players to do it.

** A trick learned early-on by many players is that shooting Ebony & Ivory while airborne will slow down Dante's descent considerably. Often this is used as an evasive technique and works very well against attacks similar to Nevan's "electrify, the floor" move.

* ''[[VideoGame/DonPachi DoDonPachi Saidaioujou]]'' has the Hyper recharge technique. Normally, defeating a midboss, boss phase, or certain types of enemies turns all on-screen bullets into small star items. But during a Hyper, cancelled bullets turn into large star items, which are worth 10 times the usual small ones. However, items picked up during a Hyper don't charge up your Hyper gauge. This can be exploited by triggering a bullet cancel just as your Hyper times out, spawning a screenful of large items which ''do'' charge up your next Hyper because your previous one ended before you actually pick them up. Since this is much easier said than done (you only have a brief window to pick up a spawned star item before it falls off the screen), it became a high-level technique and turned into an AscendedGlitch: The Xbox360 port actually includes a demonstration video teaching you how to do it, and in Ver 1.5, a Level 6 or higher Hyper turns ''all'' star items spawned into large ones plus higher levels above 6 increase the number of large star items spawned, making this exploit possible in more places than before.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' [[WhatTheHellHero lets you target your own teammates with your spells]]. It turns out that using a magic-reflecting spell on them first, then the spell, will go through the ''enemy's'' reflect.
*** Tidus and Wakka have Blitzball skills that involve kicking and punching sports balls hard enough to move a long distance through water. As it turns out, this translates to doing considerable damage on impact when it's moving through the air (and in Wakka's case, even on airborne enemies hundreds of feet away). Oddly enough, Tidus' Jecht Shot, which involves punching and kicking the ball [[UnnecessaryRoughness into several defenders before going for the goal]], isn't used as a combat move.