Achievements In Ignorance / Video Games

• In Ancient Domains of Mystery, even attempting to explore the Rift (a huge menacing chasm which requires a maxed Climbing skill to climb somewhat safely) requires a medium-high Willpower score to swallow your fear and get going...but this requirement is ignored if you have very low Perception, meaning you attempt the feat solely because you don't even realize how dangerous it is.
• In Assassin's Creed: Valhalla, Eivor managed to resist having their mind overtaken by Odin, killed the reincarnation of Loki and helped their brother overcome Tyr overriding his personality by never realizing why these things happened. Rather than being the reincarnation of Odin who attempts a Split-Personality Takeover , their friend being the reincarnation of Loki who holds a grudge against Odin and so wants to kill them, and their brother having awakened Tyr's personality inside him, they just assume that the first case was merely part of an earlier hallucination, the second case baffles them, and the third is simply attributed to the earlier torture Sigurd suffered from.
• In Bloodborne, certain attacks (such as the Witch of Hemwick summoning Mad ones and the Church Servants firing arcane beams from their lanterns) only appear when the player has a high enough Insight score. Given that Insight represents one's understanding of the world and doesn't so much change anything as unveil what's already there, it seems that the player character is no selling certain attacks by being too dumb to realize the attacks exist. This only works so far, however; the Lesser Amygdala on Odeon Chapel will attack you if you wander into its range even if you don't have the Insight to see what's happening.
• Nokia Akkino from Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth managing to Digifuse both Wargreymon and MetalGarurumon into Omnimon. After that happens, she admits she had absolutely no idea how she pulled that off and most likely even said the word out of completely nowhere.
• In Dark Souls III, you encounter the latest iteration of the Onion Knight, Siegward of Caterina, when he's trying to find his way to the top of a tower by overcoming a fairly basic lift puzzle. When you have, yourself, solved the lift puzzle and gotten to the top of the tower, you will find that even though the lift hasn't moved since you used it, and he certainly wasn't on it with you, Siegward has somehow managed to find his way to, not the top of the tower, but a ledge partway along the lift shaft that you can only reach by rolling off at the correct time. Even he's not sure how he got there.
• One possible character trait in Death Road to Canada is Oblivious, which is surprisingly useful. Characters with the trait can bypass events due to simply not understanding the issues involved, (such as walking into creepy locations that freak out the rest of the party) or distracting hostile adversaries with inane questions (such as asking the buff bandits why they're wearing sweatbands, which causes them to go into a flexing routine and forget about mugging the group).
• In Deltarune, Lancer springs Susie and Kris from their prison cells... not by simply releasing them from their cages, but by ordering a thousand shovels for Kris' room, and the request breaks the computer powering their cage, allowing them to free Susie as well.
• During the first mission in Deus Ex: Human Revolution the player is tasked with disarming a gas bomb, which is quickly counting down. It's possible to fail the hacking mini-game, leaving a player to watch as the gas will detonate killing the civilians. Many players may simply slam or shoot the bomb out of sheer desperation or impatience; only to find out this actually works and successfully disarms the bomb.
• Humans in the Disgaeaverse are already pretty damn tough in order to keep up with the various demonic invaders and/or Overlords, but most of the reasons are pretty damn rational (Cpt. Gordon is military trained, as is Jennifer, while Almaz is a guard and Sapphire a berserker). And then there's Fuka Kazamatsuri. While humans can tap into 30% of their potential without risking self-injury, she manages to tap into the full 100% when her back's against the wall... all by believing that she's in the midst of a soon-to-end nightmare despite being stone dead and a Prinny to boot! And unlike the previous humans, she has no training. She's just an Ordinary Middle School Student with a lot of ambition!
• Dragon Age: Inquisition: It turns out, the Big Bad only managed to gain his position because of this trope. Solas was the real owner of the MacGuffin he used, but knew that unlocking its power would kill whoever did the deed, so he threw it into the path of Corypheus, who was a)powerful enough for the job, b)could be counted on to attempt to do so, and c)was an absolute asshole no one would miss. Corypheus, not knowing he was being set up to fail, duly went and performed the ritual anyways... and this was the point where Solas found out that his supposed Unwitting Pawn had Resurrective Immortality.
• In Dwarf Fortress's Adventure Mode, the greatest challenge an adventurer can do is to take on a Vault, a structure guarded by Angels and holding a slab inscribed with the true name of a demon. This is ridiculously difficult, and the conventional wisdom is that you need to be a Legendary adventurer armed with adamantine to even have a chance. This thread chronicles a newbie player who finds a vault, doesn't know what it is, and asks the forums... and meanwhile killing his way through the place while wearing goose leather armor. And being confused about their advice because he was so green that he didn't know what "candy" and "clown" meant in the fandom. Oh, and the adventurer survived, got the slab, turned into a wererhino to heal the ridiculous amount of damage she'd taken, and got some sweet armor out of the whole thing. The slab turned out to be useless as the demon whose name was inscribed there was killed by a roc in the backstory- the same roc that killed the player's previous three adventurers, in fact.
• In The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, the Dragonborn can admit to the leader of the Greybeards that they have no idea how they are able to use the Thu'um, they just do. Arngeir explains that Dragonborn are unique in that they can instantly learn new Words of Power, which would take normal people years or decades to master if they can even do so at all. It's around that point in the game that you stop gaining new Thu'um words easily and have to actually work for them.
• Fallout:
  • In Fallout 2, it's possible for a stupid character, a character rendered temporarily stupid through a Mentats comedown, or Psycho, to skip a step when fixing the Vagrants' ship and still get it to work.
  • One of the most amusing moments in Fallout: New Vegas has you perform successful brain surgery on Caesar with low medical skill but a Luck stat of 9 or higher.
    (when asked how you managed to pull it off)
    Courier: I have no idea whatsoever.
  • Fallout 4:
    • The Idiot Savant perk proves sometimes it's better to be lucky than wise! It gives you a random chance to gain triple EXP from any action, with this chance increasing the lower your Intelligence is. The upgraded version of this gives a quintuple EXP bonus (that's 5 times higher), and the final version brings the bonus back down to three times but also gives triple EXP for subsequent actions taken for a time.
    • Even the modding community of the game ran away with that trope, using Idiot Savant as a requirement for doing stuff that would make even the most Psycho-laced bandit question their sanity. For example, building a crossbreed minigun slash assault rifle chambered for shotgun shells!
      Description: Wait... What?
    • If you're stumped by a locked container, Dogmeat can be commanded to "fetch" the contents, regardless of difficulty.
    • Sierra Petrovita reappears in the Nuka-World DLC as an excited tourist at the park. Said park has been completely overrun with bloodthirsty Raider gangs, yet Sierra happily gushes and squees over the park attractions with only some token annoyance from the various raiders she encounters. The suggestion is that the raiders didn't simply turn her into a decoration because they all assumed that someone higher up the chain is allowing her to roam around freely, and they do that because she shows absolutely no fear around them and acts like she's supposed to be there.
• Tidus in Final Fantasy X is completely ignorant of Spira's customs and the Church of Yevon. Because he stubbornly refuses to conform to the social norms, he starts asking the big questions that no one else thought to ask for over a thousand years. This leads Yuna's party to discover that the entire faith is a lie to control the masses.
• In the Goldsmith questline of Final Fantasy XIV, the Warrior of Light tries to repair a mammet with a Black Pearl Ring they recently crafted. They know literally nothing about mammet construction and this action makes zero sense, but it works anyway because the mammet ends up getting Insulted Awake at the prospect of having their creation in his body.
• Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 has Mareeta learning the Astra skill in this manner. Upon meeting with a man claiming to be the great swordsman Shannan, she asks him to teach her his signature technique, and he decides to give her some spiritualistic advice and tell her that she needs to look inside herself to become a true swordmaster. A few minutes of sword practice, self-reflection, and meditation later, and she's worked it out. What puts it into this trope is that "Shannan" was actually Shannam, a charlatan and a mediocre swordsman who doesn't know how to use Astra at all, and his "training" was just him bullshitting an answer to get her to go away. Mareeta simply didn't realize that learning how to use Astra because of some generic advice and introspection shouldn't be impossible.
• Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade: For mages to actually use their magic, they generally have to commune with the spirits of anima, and this process involves learning complex chants that can take years to hear, much less decipher. Erk, who's had years of study under one of the greatest mages on the continent, is befuddled at how Nino can be a mage when she's completely illiterate. Nino tells him that she "just" practiced Sonia's chants until she had memorized them and is surprised that it takes most people so long.
• There's a somewhat odd example of this in Fire Emblem Fates. Setsuna is apparently a Lethal Chef, because, despite her Cloud Cuckoolander traits, she actually overthinks things when she cooks. After getting some criticism from Azama, Setsuna decides she's going to think as little as she usually does while cooking... and somehow manages to make a really good meal while zoned out.^note Except it doesn't stop her from making disgusting meals if you let her staff the mess hall.
  • Also in Fire Emblem Fates, when Odin was first hired as Leo's retainer, Leo sent Odin to find things that didn't exist and to do things that were thought to be impossible. Odin, being Odin, somehow managed to complete every task Leo assigned him. Even after he learned that Leo intended for these missions to be impossible, Odin replied that he 'liked' the "impossible" missions.
• Metal Gear:
  • In Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, if Snake calls up Otacon and complains about seasickness, Otacon will suggest he take pentazemin (a fictional form of benzodiazepine he normally uses to reduce hand tremors while sniping). He does, and his seasickness goes away. A surprised Otacon reveals he suggested the pentazemin as a placebo effect and there was no way it should have worked. It also doubles as a case of Accidentally-Correct Writing as drugs from the Benzodiazepine class actually do treat motion sickness and Mal de Debarquement, presumably by suppressing central vestibular responses.
  • Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater: OK, so Snake collects various plants and animals, which he can call Para-Medic to identify. At the same time, he carries around night-vision goggles and other various things which require battery power. When he collects a species of bio-luminescent mushrooms, he assumes that, because they glow, eating them will "recharge [his] batteries". This works even though Para-Medic specifically told him it was impossible; Snake's ignorance is just that good. Calling back Para-Medic after eating these mushrooms leads to a fun conversation between her and Sigint about the placebo effect.
• A bit into NieR: Automata, you meet a Half-Wit Inventor machine in Pascal's village. He keeps asking you for investment money until you reach about 100,000, which he intends to use to send a rocket to the moon. Come back later and he tells you that the whole thing was a failure since the rocket went to Mars instead.
• Played for laughs in Persona 4, where the Investigation Team has a cooking competition in which they make an omelette for Nanako. When it's Yukiko's turn to present hers, Kanji tastes it to make sure that won't harm Nanako... but he doesn't taste anything. He expresses how it's amazing how Yukiko put a lot of ingredients in the omelette only for it to have no flavor, but she chalks it up to Kanji's palate not being refined.
  • Played for laughs again in Persona 5 Strikers. The Phantom Thieves have to get from Fukuoka to Kyoto, but Makoto wears herself out from doing the lion's share of the driving. Fortunately for the Thieves, Haru also has a license. Unfortunately for the Thieves, she drives like she's auditioning for The Fast and the Furious. Thus she starts in Fukuoka, somehow cuts through Osaka, and makes it to Kyoto in a few hours. That's roughly 400 miles and five prefectures! Needless to say, the Thieves minus Sophia are scared out of their pants.
  Haru: I was just driving normally... I think.
• Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous: Nenio has an odd example, in that she can, to a limited extent re-write history by choosing to ignore things. At one point she goes from "Eskimo Nell"-drunk to stone-cold sober in a fraction of a second simply by forgetting that she is drunk.
• Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time: The Primal Peashooter plant has a chance to Knock Back any zombie it hits (100% for its Plant Food)- including the huge, heavy Gargantuar, and also the Excavator who otherwise No Sells forward-firing plants. The only zombie immune to its knockback entirely is the Jurassic Bully, which as Penny puts it- "is too stupid to observe typical physics", hence becoming immune to the knockback by not knowing that it should be.
• Pokémon:
  • Some Pokémon, such as Bidoof, have the ability Unaware, which allows the Pokémon to ignore the opponent's stat changes. The implication being that the holders of the ability do this by being too dim or innocently optimistic to realize that the stat changes ever happened. For example, Bidoof can inflict normal damage on an opponent that has raised its Defense or Special Defense, take normal damage from an opponent that has raised its Attack or Special Attack, move faster than an opponent that has raised its Speed (provided it wasn't faster than Bidoof to begin with), or repeatedly land hits on an opponent that has boosted its Evasion. Of course, Unaware can be a double-edged sword. Since it ignores stat changes, it also ignores any debuffs you may have applied to the opponent, meaning you'll still do and take normal damage after lowering the opponent's defensive or offensive stats, miss just as often with your low-accuracy moves after lowering the opponent's Evasion, and be hit just as often after lowering the opponent's Accuracy.
  • The move Amnesia, which boosts Special Defense, seems to work this way. Explicitly stated in Pokémon Adventures, where Lorelei says it works by allowing a Pokémon to ignore damage by forgetting that it took damage. She implies, however, that this is a temporary thing, and eventually all this "forgotten" damage will catch up and overwhelm the Pokémon, which is a facet of the move that doesn't exist in the games.
• Portal 2:
  • In Chapters 6 and 7, it's revealed that the man behind Aperture Science, Cave Johnson, was not only insane with mercury poisoning but didn't know anything about how science actually works. It's because he didn't know the limitations of technology that his corporation created physics-breaking inventions like the Portal Gun. Considering the invention of portals was for "possible shower curtain applications", and that he said they were going to "throw science at the wall and see what sticks", this is actually quite likely. It helped that the man didn't think his science should "stand on the shoulders of giants" and instead did everything from the ground up. Problem is, this also meant his test subjects suffered a variety of known hazards.
  • The Intelligence Dampening Sphere, better known as Wheatley is an AI built with the express purpose of being stupid. However, when he is put in charge of Aperture Science, his lack of knowledge on how the facility works and COMPLETE disregard of property damage makes the test chambers even more lethal than GLaDOS's tests could ever dream of being.
• Psychonauts 2: Sam implies she milked a bird in order to get milk for her pancakes^note birds, in case this isn't clear, do not lactate.
• One of the deadliest bioweapons in Resident Evil's history was created as a result of Umbrella scientists using an orphaned young girl with an unusual resiliency to their bio-weapons as a living petri dish, infecting her with various pathogens to test their efficacy and to just generally see what would happen. When one of their pathogens was unexpectedly destroyed by her body, the resulting examination revealed that twenty years of injecting viruses into her body had created a pathogen capable of repairing damage to its host at the cellular level, mutating that host randomly and unpredictably in response to trauma and could even resurrect its host in the event of their death, creating in a nigh-unstoppable killing machine. This virus would be labeled the Golgotha Virus, or G-Virus, which played a major role in the destruction of Raccoon City.
• River City Girls: Kyoko somehow managed to get detention in a school she doesn't even attend.
• In RuneScape there is a Ga'al (a Tzhaar born without memories) who used magic to hide himself, but hid himself too well and got stuck, and only appears when certain conditions are met which the game doesn't give any clues about. If you ask him what runes he used for the spell, he will say that he didn't use any runes. Your character will point out that this is impossible, and he will say that nobody told him that.
  • When you ask the blacksmith Oziach about rune armor, he tells you he will sell you some if you slay the dragon Elvarg, who destroyed an entire nation of wizards on her own and has been untouched ever since. He expects that the ridiculous Impossible Task will make you leave him alone. Long story short...
• Big the Cat in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. In Sonic Adventure, he's able to fly the Tornado 2 off of the crashing Egg Carrier despite the fact that, for all intents and purposes, this could very well be the first time he's even seen a plane, let alone flown one. In Sonic and the Secret Rings, there's notes of Big somehow exploring the world of the 1001 Nights. In Sonic Frontiers, Sonic's flabbergasted to find Big on the Starfall Islands, asking him how the hell he managed to get there, to which he just shrugs and says he has no idea either.
• The Splatoon series enjoys doing this by way of Painting the Medium:
  • In the first game's single player campaign, at one point a member of Mission Control somehow manages to make herself almost impossible to understand on the radio because she's holding hers the wrong way. This is represented by having her dialogue box shown upside down. This returns as a Chekhov's Gag in the sequel, when the player and company receive an odd message delivered in the same manner, confirming to her partner that she's been brainwashed into working for the enemy.
  • During the second game's "Hare vs. Tortoise" Splatfest announcement, Pearl and Marina do their usual banter, only for the latter to be completely caught off guard when Pearl somehow vocalizes a misspelling.
    Pearl: Ooh... Too shay!
    Marina: Uh... What? Did you jus—
    Pearl: Aight! Tortoise and the hare. REEEEEEE-MAAAATCH!
    Marina: OK, but I'm pretty sure you just said-
• In Sunless Skies, while under the effects of the Martyr-King's Cup, you can drive a butterknife through a table purely through the sincere belief it's a sword. Later delusional episodes similarly allows you to perform what would be outright physics-defying stunts as long as you remain convinced you're actually on an epic medieval fantasy quest for the Cup.
• According to Touhou Project lore, Kanako deliberately arranged for the power of nuclear fusion to be given to Utsuho, specifically because the latter was too birdbrained to know that controlling nuclear power was difficult. It worked, though Utsuho became evil for a while. This eventually led to an odd side effect: Utsuho became a savant at nuclear physics, despite still needing examples of how long 100 meters is.
• Undertale:
  • At one point in the game, Sans moves his sentry station from Snowdin to Hotland (the hottest area in the game) to sell hot dogs. Despite this, his station still has snow on it. Why? He was too lazy to clean it off.
  • The game is this in-universe, as the Annoying Dog, actually the game's creator Toby Fox, is shown to have made a "fairly decent video game just by barking into a translator".
  • In the Pacifist ending, Napstablook turns out to be the only one who wasn't drawn into Asriel's massive soul steal. How'd they avoid it? They simply closed the blinds and continued doing their usual activities.
• The Witch's House:
  • A sign on the third floor tells you to walk straight down the hall and to not deviate from the path or get distracted. Fail to follow the rule, and you will die at the end of the hall... unless you don't read the sign, then you can take the most crooked path you want. Ignorance of the rule excuses you from it!
  • However, if you read the sign before in other playthroughs, it will remember...
• In the Worgen starting zone in World of Warcraft, your character is stuck in Worgen-form and unable to change back and forth at will until near the end of the zone's story, when the Night Elves give you the means. Well before that point, however, one of your quests involves getting senile old Grandma Wahl to evacuate in the wake of the Cataclysm. In the course of the quests, you see her transform into a Worgen and attack an enemy that was threatening her cat. Upon returning to her to turn in the quest, she's returned to human. Grandma Wahl apparently controls the curse by virtue of being too dotty to realize she's even a Worgen in the first place, let alone that she's supposed to be Shapeshifter Mode Locked.
• Ordinarily, Blades in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 require a cooldown period after using their arts. However, the Blade Finch is so hilariously derpy, she sometimes forgets she has just performed an art and is ready to do one right after another.
• Valdi, commander of the Iron rank Colony 30 in Xenoblade Chronicles 3, had, in earlier conflicts, pulled off some upset victories in combat over the Steel rank Colony Lambda and Silver rank Colony Iota. However, while the strength of his superior Levnis technology was indeed a factor in these victories, Valdi himself is much more a mechanic than a strategist, and largely bumbled through the battles as his enemies' commanders struggled to get a read on his strategies.

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