Examples of Crazy-Preparedness from video games. Batman has his own subpage, which includes the various Batman games.
- Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, during the mission Stonehenge Defensive, it’s revealed that the developers behind Stonehenge had set up range tables in the event that the battery’s computerized targeting systems got taken out. Considering the fact that the battery’s range almost completely covers the entire continent of Usea, one has to wonder how much math did they put into making sure that those tables were accurate.
- Cynthia Weaver in Alan Wake, with a little more emphasis on the "crazy" part. The enemies in the game are made of darkness, so she always carries around a light of some sort, even in the middle of the day. She left behind supply caches of ammo and light-emitting objects like flares just in case an author got pulled into Cauldron Lake and the Dark Presence forced them to write it free; the caches are even marked with special light-sensitive ink that can only be seen by someone who was touched by the Dark Presence. None of this, however, compares to the Well-Lit Room. The name is actually a bit of an understatement; there are lightbulbs everywhere and absolutely no shadows inside. The room is connected to a decommissioned power plant, so there's no need to find a power source. Cynthia even knows what bulbs need to be changed when, right down to their manufacturer and serial number.
- In Alpha Protocol, when requesting backup from superspy extrodinaire Steven Heck, during your infiltration into a subway in Taipei, Steven tells you not to worry about the details, he's got you covered. When heavily under fire, you make the call and Steven's backup involves him hurtling by the platform in a stolen subway car and strafing the platform with a minigun he's bolted to the back of it, cackling maniacally all the while. He'd prepared that years ago, just in case.Mike: [before the mission] Why do I get the feeling you've already planned for this?Steven: Because I have, Mike!
- Any experienced Armored Core players know well enough not to venture into an unknown mission without carrying equipment for all kinds of situations. These include radar equipped with bio-sensors so one can target biological threats, weapons that can track even the fastest of opponents such as machineguns or missiles, and weapons that cause a lot of damage to armored enemies. Some very professional players deliberately use overweighted ACs loaded with every weapon for any situations in Arenas, and eject any unnecessary weapons when the fight begins, depending on the enemy.
- Some weapons in Baldur's Gate II. Against mages, if they're not protected from magical weapons: Carsomyr (otherwise an unenchanted weapon). Against fire elementals or salamanders: The Wave. Against Air Elementals: Staff of Air. Against Undead: Runehammer. Against trolls or golems: Crom Faeyr. Against anyone that wouldn't die by loss of hitpoints: Chaos. For shopping (yes, for shopping): the Rose Blade. For Warrior/Cleric Multiclasses: Flail of Ages. For Backstabs: Black Blade of Disaster (or the Staff of the Ram). And then you move onto choosing spells for the wizards, clerics, and druids. Never leave home without: Insect Plague (for rendering casters unable to use their spells), Polymorph Self (flind form has a + 3 magic weapon, mustard jelly is 100% magic resistant), Spell Turning, multiple healing/resurrection spells, Polymorph Other (in case your allies are charmed), Glitterdust (for dealing with invisibles), Burning Hands/Acid Arrow (in case of trolls), Chaos (to leave your enemies fighting each other), Drain Resistance (to deal with magic resistant enemies), Fireball (because it's Fireball)...
- Hazama / Yuuki Terumi from BlazBlue has proved to us that hundreds and hundreds of time loops, and an Evil Genius without like in its own universe, combined with an undying desire to throw the world into an abyss of despair, simply for the fact that "misery is interesting", can lead up to you taking a lot of precautions just to face him. And it may still not work 100% anyway. Buuuut... Terumi winds up deconstructing this, as he was only Crazy-Prepared because he had witnessed hundreds and hundreds of time loops. Without such preparation (as Slight Hopenote demonstrates and Chronophantasma ultimately confirms), his victories are due to overwhelming power and blind luck, and neither can last forever on their own. Makoto Nanaya intervening on the behalf of Tsubaki Yayoi led to his downfall in both instances — and in the latter, his death by Hakumen. Then again, considering what Makoto is, antagonizing her was a very bad idea.
- Daniel Clarke from Call of Duty: Black Ops. He set up THREE well-stocked armories, a fully mapped-out rooftop escape route (complete with mattresses stacked in a balcony in the event one would need to jump down), as well as having enough explosives rigged into his laboratory to take out an armoured helicopter in mid-flight that he detonates when Spetsnaz forces attempt to retrieve his research.
- The Crysis Nanosuit always seemed to be crazy prepared. It can breathe underwater, has thrusters to work in zero gravity, can survive being frozen to -200 degrees, and also provides a decent amount of protection against rockets and artillery. Yet it can't seem to survive a single bite from a medium-sized shark...
- In Chapter 5 of Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony, the victim and killer conspire together to create a murder that not even Monokuma would be able to solve, thereby beating him at his own game. The identity of the victim is disguised by crushing his body under a hydraulic press and then cutting the power cord so it couldn't be raised up again to see who was underneath, and the identity of the killer is disguised by having him pilot a mech to the trial which is equipped with a voice changer that allows him to sound like both people, which he swaps between constantly in order to confuse everyone further. As for the Crazy Prepared part, the victim provided the killer with a gigantic script he had written so the killer would be able to convincingly act like him in court, with responses planned out for every little thing anyone could conceivably say. And he was dying from poison prior to being crushed, meaning he had the script written in advance.
- It's taken even further in Chapter 6 when the survivors investigate the room of the victim and find it to be a Room Full of Crazy with a String Theory wall, hundreds of fake blueprints to hide the ones for the real tools he commissioned from the Ultimate Inventor Miu, and all of the evidence from previous trials.
- The Deadpool game credits the protagonist with this ability. Right after the tutorial section, Deadpool inflates a large bouncy castle, which the player will likely dismiss as further evidence of his insanity and forget about. At the end of the level, he jumps out of a skyscraper with his target, landing safely on the castle. Later on, a series of flashbacks show him setting up a Rube Goldberg Device to create a bridge for the X-Men.
- Geoffrey from Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice, whose Catchphrase is, "I thought this might happen, so I (X)".
- Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!: K. Rool certainly pulls out all the stops this time around. He uses KAOS as a false enemy to hide behind, abducts Donkey and Diddy as a precaution as well as to get Living Batteries for KAOS, seals away Banana Bird Queen to prevent her interference, and scatters her fellow Banana Birds (the only ones who can free her) all over the place via hidden caves with complex security sequences.
- In Double Homework, Dr. Mosely/Zeta seems to be prepared for everything, and can even neutralize the threat Dennis poses after he hacks into her computer. According to her, Dennis is the first ever subject of one of her experiments to make said experiment fail.
- In Dwarf Fortress, one of the more extreme "facilities" developed by players is called the "Fuck The World" device, which will lock your fortress up tight and flood the surrounding area with magma. Some fortresses also allow different areas of the fortress to be locked off and flooded. Or set up the main dining hall's roof to collapse, dropping hundreds of tons of rock on everyone inside. Or drop everyone in the trading depot into a room where dragons breath fire on them through a grate. There's even a concept for a Fortress that monitors foot traffic inside the fortress: If there's abnormal activity indicating a catastrophic population loss or an extended "Tantrum Spiral", the fortress will lock itself and activate the Fuck The World device, taking the world down with it.
- The Elder Scrolls
- In Morrowind, you had better be this if you hope to survive for long. Keep a few "Cure Disease" potions on hand (at least until a certain point in the main quest) because you never know when you might stumble into a den of vampires. And if you're going somewhere that might have Greater Bonewalkers, having something to restore your Strength attribute will help. (They have a nasty tendency to damage your attributes with a spell. This is a mere annoyance for most of your attributes, but having your Strength damaged could leave you an overencumbered sitting duck in the middle of a fight.) A few scrolls of Almsivi or Divine Intervention are also a must in order to get out of a sticky situation or for transporting more loot than you could otherwise carry. Asking certain NPCs for a "Little Advice" will lead to this being a Discussed trope, as they advise you on some of these tips plus others.
- Your character in Oblivion and Skyrim can be an example of this, if done right. While nearly all of these examples can be replicated with spells, hoarding potions is a great way to survive. Low on health or magicka? Chug some potions. Diseased? Chug potions. Water breathing? There's a potion for that. Need to be more liked by people? Potion for that. Need help in a fight? Slight twist here: there's a scroll for that. Need someone to start the fight instead of you? Again, scroll. Need to carry more loot? Potions and scrolls. And this isn't even bringing enchantments into play...
- In Emerald City Confidential, one of the achievements you can get is defeating the wizard arena's resident champion on the first try. However, the only way you can do this is by collecting specific items which are seemingly random, such as a Heavy Cake, a Magic Rope, and a Copper Rod.
- Dr. Edwin Lindsey in Eternal Darkness discovers a temple in Cambodia and goes there with a buttload of items. While all the other characters either have just one weapon or other item and need to find more, Lindsey starts with a blade, a pistol, and a shotgun, making his chapter much easier to start with before he finds the tome that lets him cast magic.
- The Space MMORPG EVE Online features a form of this, with players not only having to haul around different types of ammunition, missiles, and drones for engaging targets at different ranges or fighting different types of enemies strong against particular types of damage and capacitor batteries for sustaining fire or damage, but also spare modules, since some may mean the difference between winning a fight and being made utterly useless, which often leads to utterly dead. What's more, in many situations, whether you are flying a large or a small ship, it doesn't matter how high your skills are or expensive your ship and gear; you have to change to a different ship. Naturally, in the economy of EvE, with experienced players often having whole stacks of ships in hangars strewn about and the ability to travel light years in an instant, this isn't such a big deal.
- Every MMO encourages this by virtue of having so many scenarios possible. The old EverQuest has a decade of content available for picking up neat toys.
- Mr. House, from Fallout: New Vegas, was not only aware that nuclear Armageddon was on the way but also made extensive preparation for his own and Vegas' survival during and after the fact. Though his projection of the date the war would break out was off — by less than a day — he saved a sizable chunk of Las Vegas from becoming blasted and irradiated wreckage (unlike, for example, Washington DC or Pittsburg in the same setting), and emerged two hundred years later to wall it off and claim it as his own territory from the tribes that had overtaken it in his absence. Without that one setback, it's very likely he would have ruled completely unchallenged for a long, long time. As they say, the House always wins. Too bad no one can plan for the Courier.
- Hello Neighbor: In all four versions currently available, the Neighbor boards up his basement door and outfits it with a keycard lock. In the pre-alpha, Alpha 1, and Alpha 3, he eventually places Bear Traps and motion detectors around his house as well. In the pre-alpha and Alpha 1, he will board up his windows to prevent you from getting in through them a second time. In the pre-alpha, in addition to boarding up his basement and using a keycard lock, he also uses a number keypad. In Alpha 1, he has a tiny robotic shark to attack intruders. In the second alpha, he boards up the room with the keycard in it and locks up the room with the crowbar and carries the key on him at all times.
- Hitman:
- The later games allow you to carry a handgun, poison, close-combat weapon, a sniper rifle/Rifle/Shotgun/SMG and/or explosives for missions.
- In the Bangkok level of Hitman (2016), one method of getting close to and assassinating indie rock star Jordan Cross is to have 47 knock out their new replacement drummer, steal his clothes, and have 47 play the drums. Not only does he manage to fool them, but he plays well enough that he manages to impress them. Either 47 has some interesting hobbies outside of his work with the ICA, or he was prepared for that exact scenario.
- The abysmal Iron Soul has various world governments pulling this, as part of the backstory includes the discovery of life on other planets, shortly followed by the construction of an army of Killer Robots in case of a potential Alien Invasion.
- Jagged Alliance 2's extensive panoply of weapons (specifically, in the fan-made v1.13) means you have the ability to outfit your mercs with the tools they need for any battlefield situation (multiple enemies at mid-range, close-range combat, enemies holed up in a building, tanks...). Limited carry weight of your mercs makes this a bit more difficult, but it's easy to compartmentalize.
- Let's hope your Kingdom of Loathing character remembered to bring a spider web, a barbed-wire fence, a baseball, a firecracker, a blowgun, and a can of hairspray (among others) to the Naughty Sorceress' tower, or you're not getting through. The game involves farming and combining ridiculous items to pass the challenges. Softcore speed runners have to be Crazy-Prepared, too. If you want to finish that fast run, you had better have your Ancestral Storage well stocked with everything from ghost pickles to drum machines to hockey sticks of furious angry rage.
- Since the revamped Naughty Sorceress Quest, you had better have picked up very specific combat items from the 10th and 11th level quests if you want to get through.
- At the last dungeon of every game, by default, Link is Crazy Prepared for any obstacle it may have due to having spent the journey of each of The Legend of Zelda games collecting various useful items and supplies.
- In the fighting game Marvel vs. Capcom 3, at least one of Doctor Doom's basic attacks and one of his hyper combos involve attacking the opponent with machinery he previously hid on the battle site. As fights in this game can take place anywhere from an ordinary city street to the X-Men's private training room to the extradimensional home of the Norse Gods, this demonstrates an impressive degree of preparedness on his part.
- Rocket Raccoon gives one huge "Bitch, please" to Doom in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Hidden gigantic bear traps, remote-activated sinkholes, swinging log traps, and an air-strike just waiting for him to give the order while a helicopter assures he remains at a safe distance.
- Mass Effect:
- The Graal Spike Thrower is a shotgun specifically designed by the krogan for hunting thresher maws. With that in mind, it features special built in blades, so that in the event that a krogan gets swallowed by a maw, they can either cut themselves out or cause severe internal bleeding to take it down with them. Overall, it says something about the krogan that they designed a shotgun believing that it was a very real possibility that they might be eaten at some point.
- During the Citadel DLC, during a quiet party, Garrus and Zaeed will decide to booby trap Shepard's apartment just in case another Shepard clone shows up. They rig up the glass by the entry door, the coffeemaker, and the refrigerator. Zaeed almost turns the hot tub into a plasma bath up until Shepard points out that the DNA trigger won't work because his/her clone would have the same DNA.
- The Reapers have about seven different backup plans in place just in case their original one (which has worked for over a billion years) doesn't go according to plan.
- Dr. Light from the Mega Man X series. Before his death, he had set up approximately 53 (or more) capsules containing upgrades all over the world for the main characters, even Zero, which is odd, seeing as Zero isn't even a creation of Light at all. And the hologram that shows up with each capsule falls into the Energy Being Spirit Advisor category, allowing himself to talk with both of them.
- In the first Megaman Star Force, Bob Copper is loaded to the gills with stuff working with Z-Waves, the waves that FM-ians give off, which have been around for only about 2 weeks at that point. Omega-Xis is outright scared when he pulls out a self-created Rejecter, which, according to Omega-Xis, is tech that humans shouldn't have yet.
- Mental Omega: In sharp contrast to his depiction in the vanilla game, here Yuri is much better at preparing for resistance to his plans.
- Antarctica HQ Defenses: He has his ultimate weapon, the Mental Omega Device, and best protectors, the Ganzir Defenders, guarded by psychic barriers generated by Mental Dynamos. Just one of them is enough to keep the shields active, and Yuri has about ten of them built, all well protected from air assault by layers of Dybbuk Hives and Epsilon bases. Even if all the Dynamos are destroyed, there's a final one hidden underground since no one ever thinks to do something like that in the C&C games, behind waves and waves of Epsilon infantry in tight corridors.
- Moscow Defenses: Yuri's made sure the Kremlin is shielded by a network of Iron Curtains, all of which must be destroyed to expose it. Then it takes it a step further by having the devices shield each other in sequence, ensuring that they're taken out in the right order. Then he takes it further by having some of the Iron Curtains hidden away under stealth, meaning any attackers will need to sweep areas thoroughly with detectors. Then he takes it even further by having one last Iron Curtain node built into Volkov. And considering Volkov's power levels at that point, it makes exposing the Kremlin one hell of a tough time....all while Yuri's Hands Of Ereshkigal are slowly tearing through the invaders' bases, with only Yuri's death capable of stopping them.
- The Monster Hunter series requires players to follow this trope. Going Leeroy Jenkins towards nearly every beast will ensure a swift, painful and expensive demise. Monsters have unique behaviors and elemental abilities/resistances that can all be planned around (e.g. is the monster an aggressive carnivore, or does it flee at the first sign of trouble). The player's weapon can make or break a hunt, like taking a blunt weapon to break a monster's armor. The environment is a major factor, as hunting in hostile climates requires specific supplies to survive in, so on and so forth.
- Mortal Kombat:
- Mortal Kombat 3: Shao Khan; despite all his blabber about You Have Failed Me to his minions, he knew he might end up failing to win Earthrealm through legal means, so arranged to have his dead wife revived and Brainwashed and Crazy on Earthrealm, allowing him to step through the dimensional borders to claim her, and thus force a merger between Earth and Outworld. First three things he does upon doing so? Lock down his wife with bodyguards, steal the souls of everyone on Earth that isn't The Chosen One, and send a vast army of bloodthirsty, nigh-invulnerable beasts after said Chosen Ones to prevent them from ruining his plans. It didn't work out quite as planned, but you've got to give him credit for trying. He also shows this off in later games; anticipating that his "loyal" minions might one day attempt to overthrow him, he places a decoy in his place during the events of Deadly Alliance, thus surviving his infamous assassination attempt. Then, in Armageddon, he revives Shang Tsung (who had been vaporized by Raiden's attempt to destroy the Dragon King in Deception) and forces fealty on him, revealing that all minions swearing loyalty to him get hit with a spell that, if Khan dies at any time, causes them to die too, as well as giving him the ability to revive them at will. Mortal Kombat 9 reveals he had his victory speech planned waaaaaaay in advance as well.
- Mortal Kombat X: Erron Black seems to have carved bullets for each one of the characters in the roster. Including Alien and Predator, each one of the variations of Triborg, one for engaging in a Mirror Match and even for non-playable characters that only appear in Story Mode and who Erron himself never fights.
- Setsumi in Narcissu has prepared several things in case she escapes, which she never does. This becomes handy after she did escape with the protagonist.
- Quite a bit of Nethack's gameplay consists of packratting items that can counter the game's many deathtraps: a lizard corpse to prevent being petrified, greased clothing in case a monster tries to grab you, boots of levitation to avoid pits, and an amulet of self-resurrection if everything else fails. Though the vast majority of them will, in fact, be used in a given successful run — certainly, you will have to fight Medusa with a mirror and deal with the cloak-grabbing enemies around her, find a castle which you need an instrument to enter, fly, resist fire, have an instant-kill available, dig out quick routes from one set of stairs to another for a fast escape, detect traps or have a stockpile of food (and detecting traps actually requires a detect gold scroll and something that conveys confusion), and I'm just listing things tied to fixed dungeon events, not individual monsters like the cockatrice or golems. A towel is also a very useful item to have.
- Neverwinter Nights 2 combines a crafting system with various types of damage resistance. If you're smart, you'll be carrying at least one self-made and -enchanted Silver, Cold Iron, and Adamantine version of your favored weapon, if necessary an additional bludgeoning weapon, and remember to add an alignment-enchanted weapon as well, so that you have the means to effectively hurt all the Werecreatures, devils and demons, Golems, Skeletons, Liches, and what have you with the proper weapon of choice. Or just play a monk, where your hands end up being all those things anyway.
- No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle: When Travis Touchdown arrives at the Rank 25 fight, assassin Charlie MacDonald and his cheerleading squad transform into a Humongous Mecha. Travis responds: "I thought something like this might happen." He then summons his own Humongous Mecha and he and Charlie proceed to have a giant mecha fight in the middle of Santa Destroy.
- No More Heroes III: Implied at the start of the game, when alien spaceships arrive to raze Santa Destroy. After Travis, Shinobu and Bad Girl dispose of some Mooks, the former shouts "Henshin!" to summon a Power Armor, then he flies off and attacks the spaceships.
- In Planescape: Torment, quite a few of The Nameless One's previous incarnations were Crazy-Prepared — and for the most part, you benefit greatly from their contingencies, if you use them without being physically (or morally) offended.
- Pokémon:
- A large part of the Meta Game in competitive battles involves preparing for possible counterattacks and compensating for specific weaknesses in your party that an opponent might take advantage of.
- In some of the later games, enemy NPCs have been programmed to notice and exploit type advantages and counter tactics, and major enemies can and will train their Pokemon to use attacks only available by TM/HM, tutors, or breeding.
- In Pokémon Black and White, a little analysis will reveal that Ghetsis's Pokemon lineup is perfectly tailored to overthrow N, and accounts for every possibility in N's team of "friends". This turns into Crippling Overspecialization when the player character's involvement blindsides him. Which is probably why in the sequels, he is prepared to murder meddling teenagers in cold blood before they can stop him again. When that fails, he uses a machine to keep the new player characters from catching Kyurem to use against him.
- Practically any opponent in the PWT in Black 2 and White 2 qualifies (of course, it's not supposed to be easy). Using type advantage rarely works here, because they usually have a precaution against that. For instance, Sabrina uses Psychics, and the most common strategy against such Pokemon is to use Dark Pokemon; however, she almost always opens with an Alakazam that is incredibly fast which knows Focus Blast, a powerful Fighting attack that can flatten most Dark-types before any of them can hurt it. On top of that, it has a Colbur Berry, which means that it can resist most damage from the first Dark attack that hits it.
- Portal 2:
- The final boss is a colossal idiot who ends up almost causing the lab to self-destruct through neglect and incompetence. So after the fight, the player probably wouldn't have expected him to rig the stalemate button, which the player would certainly go for next, with explosives in case he lost the fight. Not only that, but he specifically leaves it out of his "Four Part Plan" speech detailing everything he's done to fix every flaw evident in GLaDOS' fight from the first game.
- Aperture Science has automated testing facility announcements in case GLaDOS is incapacitated. As such, they have prepared such announcements for any possibility. ANY possibility.
- Princess Liesel from visual novel Princess Waltz is physically weak, but a great blacksmith. As such, she is defined by her Hope Spot killing, pulling out device after device to counter any attack her opponent makes. Being a bit of a Chessmaster, she normally makes sure her opponents are where, when, and how she wants them, too.
- Quake Champions: Doom Edition has Sam, who not only comes with the three selectable starting weapons (while every other hero can only pick up one), but he also has an own weapon as his active ability, the Minigun. Hourglasses act as ammo packs for him.
- In Resident Evil 4, Leon goes to the Spanish village only to investigate and ask questions, yet he brought along a pistol, knife, attache case, flashlight, radio, binoculars, a tracking device, and a grappling hook (and, if you played the game on Easy, a shotgun). Of course, he was investigating a group that had kidnapped the President's daughter, so he had pretty good reason to expect trouble.
- Whoever was responsible for the packing list for the expedition in Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey was clearly a master of this mindset. There are several cases where the crew encounter something completely unexpected, only for the ship's AI Arthur to say that they've got tech for that. Perhaps most notably, the mental parasites in Sector Delphinus are countered by repurposing a mind control device. Most of the crew consider the fact that they even had this to be Paranoia Fuel.
- Being Crazy Prepared is one of the key gameplay features of the Shin Megami Tensei games and spin-offs. Arranging all the skills and spells you need out of your limited selection of demon followers, personas, or friends (and their demons) is an art, especially when you find your current selection falling behind in level and needing to set up a whole new repertoire with a different balance of needed powers. It's overall easiest in the Digital Devil Saga duology where you can customize your party members' skills directly along with buying curative items, making it your own fault if you can't cover every base effectively.
- Old Sierra adventure games required you to be insanely prepared for everything at all times, or render the game completely impossible to finish. The only thing worse than that is how Crazy Prepared Sierra is about expecting you to be Crazy Prepared — in some games, you can take everything that's nailed down along with the nails, only for the nails to kill you of tetanus a few screens later. Just because Sierra knew you would pick them up.
- Merveille from Solatorobo. She "let" the intentionally "defective" Red escape with the Dahak — which she created specifically to protect him — seemingly as a backup plan or some form of insurance against Baion.
- At the beginning of Sonic Chronicles, Eggman was so prepared for the epic battle that he even anticipated his own defeat. According to what he says, this was the only reason he survived.
- SOON: Kid!Fang came up with a time travel password just in case she needs to prove herself that time travel is real. Atlas has to convince her future self to tell them the password to get Lady Fluffyguts from her past self.
- A mandatory trait for a successful game in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.. Going for a routine artifact hunting trip? Don't forget your hunting shotgun, Warsaw Pact-based assault rifle, NATO-based assault rifle, at least one scope and suppressor for both rifles, and a sniper rifle specifically for long range engagements. Along with all of this you'll likely need at least a couple hundred rounds of each type of ammunition for each gun, as many of the three different kinds of medkits you can find, and a veritable pharmacy of drugs in order to help you combat the massive variety of anomalies you can encounter. After all, you never know when your fight with mutated wildlife in the middle of an electrical anomaly field will be interrupted by heavily armed Western Bloc mercenaries and a ghost possessing the power of pyrokinesis...
- Only this plethora of stuff will likely put you over the weight limit, meaning you can't run from the pack of mutant dogs, and worse, chasing you down. Not only do you need to know what you may need, but how much of it you can afford to carry.
- Of course, there is the option of leaving all the stuff in a box. It's generally a good idea to have your own armoury, if not necessarily on hand. There are some who have multiple NATO AND Warsaw Pact assault rifles (with scopes, suppressors, and grenade launchers), a few sniper rifles, silenced rifles, forty-something frag grenades, a Hand Cannon, some lighter-weight pistols, an automatic shotgun, more shotguns, a light machine gun, an RPG, an armoured HAZMAT suit, and combat armour. Oh, and anywhere from 200-1,000+ rounds of ammo for each calibre (except the RPG, of course). Combined with the upgrades one can have installed by the end of the game (.45 ACP MP5 that fires 1,710 rounds per minute, anyone?), even taking a few guns out of storage can turn the player character into a One-Man Army.
- It is entirely possible to beat every main quest in the game with an inventory of one rifle, 500 rounds of ammo, and a few baguettes — provided you use artifacts and their associated benefits/disadvantages judiciously. This requires an inordinate amount of face-shooting & bolt throwing, though.
- In Starcraft II Legacy Of The Void, the Spear of Adun and its sister Arkships come equipped with a full crew of Templar warriors in stasis, a solar forge capable of manufacturing any building or weapon in the Protoss arsenal, a Preserver able to access the memories and knowledge of any Protoss ever connected to the Khala, an artificial star that serves as both power generator and food supply (Protoss receive nourishment from sunlight), a vast array of support systems and weaponry, and it's implied that it also possesses a personal psi-matrix to allow those aboard to warp in and out. It's justified, as the three Arkships were explicitly created to be used only in the Protoss race's Darkest Hour and not before, so such precautions would almost certainly be required for their intended purpose.
- In the Star Fox series, Andross had multiple contingency plans in case his life was threatened. Robot fake, resurrection-by-cloning, resurrection by stolen magic, and a Virtual Ghost. He also had his nephew trained in the ways of war in order to have an interim commander.
- In Star Trek Online, Lieutenant Gaius Selan of the R.R.W. Llieset has developed over six thousand holodeck scenarios based around hostile boarding actions (to be fair, he is the security officer). He even says that he has one if the Player Character were to attack and board the Llieset and offers to brief you on your... vulnerabilities.
- Dr. Bian Zoldark from Super Robot Wars does a good job of being this trope. In the Original Generation series, his plan to unite the world against the alien threat could've suceeded, even if the heroes failed, and in Super Robot Wars Alpha, he's managed to get bloody near every superweapon (such as Mazinger, Getter, Daitarn 3, etc.) maker or user in on his plans and drew up plans to keep Earth from being blown up, and went as far as to leave backup plans (the Earth and Moon Cradle in both continuities), just in case.
- In Super Smash Bros. Brawl: The Subspace Emissary, King Dedede prepared for the appearance of Tabuu, with his ability to defeat all of the heroes gathered against him, by creating special badges and sticking them on the trophies of defeated heroes. The badges would, after a set amount of time, revive the heroes. With this, Luigi and Ness were able to travel into Subspace and rescue the others.
- In Meet the Spy
from Team Fortress 2, the Scout jokingly asks the BLU Spy if he's the president of the RED Spy's fanclub. The Spy's retort? "No, that would be your mother!", after which he manages to show Scout pictures of the Spy having sex with his mother.- Subverted in the Expiration Date film, in which the Scout is being coached by the Spy to prepare for a date, the former comes up with a comically convoluted plan to ensure that the date goes off without a hitch, including killing the chef if he's not up to snuff. It certainly sounds like something the Spy would come up with, but the Scout came up with it on his own and the Spy thinks he's crazy for it.
Spy: Final question: You have a dinner date for 7. What time do you arrive?
Scout: 7. AM. Case the restaurant, run background checks on the staff. Can the cook be trusted? If not, I gotta kill him. Dispose of the body, replace him with my own guy no later than 4:30.
[Beat]
Spy: [smiles] You're ready!
Scout: Really?
Spy: [chuckling] No. Everything you just said was insane. - Tomb Raider II has Lara starting the first level with her pistols, a shotgun, flares, and a small and large health kit. Considering how her last job went sour very quickly, she likely didn't want to take any chances in her second adventure. Likewise, Lara has a gun closet next to her bed, which has her shotgun, 70+ rounds for said shotgun, a few health kits, and some flares. Said items come in handy in the final level when the remainder of the mooks whose boss you killed come storming into Lara's home for revenge. Later games don't have her this prepared however.
- The RTS Total Annihilation has an expansion pack called The Core Contingency, which is about the Core Empire's plan to fucking IMPLODE the galaxy in on itself in case they lost, which they did.
- In Undertale, Sans is this with respect to time travel. This obviously becomes almost as useful when what you're actually doing is SAVE Scumming, almost making it look like he has full Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory when he actually has even less of it than the other characters.
- Among the functions of the MARS script for X3: Terran Conflict is automatically switching guns in and out of your ship's batteries based on what that battery is targeting as well as the target's distance, deflection, and speed. Naturally this only works if you have said weapons in your cargo bay, which means you're likely to be carrying two or three entire loadouts (anti-fighter, anti-capital, and maybe anti-corvette).
- Late in Yakuza 2, after the Florist of Sai's surveillance and information system is trashed by Kurahashi and the Jingweon Mafia, Majima reveals that he kept the entire system backed up in its original location below the Florist's old office, on the off-chance something like that would happen.
