One day you come back to your hub, excited to play at the carnival some more once again... only to find it in ruins. Its citizens are either horribly killed, cowering in their homes, or running around in panic as everything around them burns, one of the shopkeepers has turned into a ravenous werewolf and is eating your beloved pet with a side of mashed potatoes, and the carnival is now a smoldering wreck along with your mansion. If that wasn't enough, the Big Bad is right there mocking your loss, and his monsters are now flooding your precious hub from all directions. Will nothing be the same anymore from now on?
This is a trope that occurs when a video game decides to subvert the traditional notion of hubs and other "protected" areas as safe havens by introducing a threat or dangerous situation taking place within them — such as enemies that would otherwise be exclusively encountered in normal gameplay suddenly invading those places — or a sudden change in their environment. Often times, such an event may lock you from certain features or content found in the hub, or even render it inaccessible from this point on, which can potentially result in Permanently Missable Content if it is gone for good; at best, however, such events may be temporary, and a replacement hub can sometimes follow to make up for it.
Whatever the case may be, this trope generally serves to evoke a feeling of vulnerability and urgency in the player as well as invade their sense of security typically associated with hub levels, especially common in Survival Horror games due to the same reasons. It often accompanies a drastic change in the pace and tone of the plot, meaning that examples will contain many spoilers due to its nature, so be warned.
MMORPGs that do this almost always segregate the involved Player Characters into a separate instance based on the same map, rather than have them fight through the same social map where other PCs are checking their mail or topping off supplies.
This is a gaming-specific Sister Trope to All Your Base Are Belong to Us: a Hub Level is not necessarily the Player Character's actual "home base" as far as the story is concerned. Compare Safe Zone Hope Spot, where the protagonists try to reach a place where they think will be safe, and Dungeon Town, where an in-game town behaves like a dungeon instead of a safe zone. May overlap with Doomed Hometown, or with Inn Security if the Hub Level consists of a hotel, inn, or other hostel.
Examples
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Action Adventure Games
- Towards the end of Alundra, the hub village Inoa gets attacked and burned down. While there are only few enemies for you to defeat during this sequence, the emotional impact makes up for it. The survivors abandon the village and gather up in the nearby sanctuary afterwards.
- Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II: The city of Baldur's Gate serves as a safe haven for the player(s) throughout the first and second games, but is corrupted by Mordoc in the second game. Using the Onyx Tower, Mordoc turns the inhabitants of the city into the undead, forcing the player(s) to return to Baldur's Gate to fight through it. All the shops and friendly NPCs are gone, leaving only a dark version of the city behind to fight in.
- Near the end of Bastion, the titular hub comes under attack from the Ura survivors of the Calamity, who are led there by Zulf after he undergoes a Face–Heel Turn. The player is actually deposited outside of the main hub when trying to return, and has to find another way in after the Ura block the main entrance; if they're too slow, the various hub pets they have collected during the game can potentially be killed while trying to defend the Bastion.
- Metroid Prime 3: Corruption: The various landing sites for Samus Aran's ship tend to have little to no enemies and allow her to heal and save inside said ship. At one point during the Elysia arc, however, a corrupted Ghor starts attacking the ship and throws it at Samus when she comes to investigate the commotion; she must then defeat Ghor and then let the ship repair itself before it regains full functionality.
- Skylanders has quite a few of them.
- Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure starts with the Core of Light, the center of the universe and the game's hub world, reduced to rubble by a hydra attack.
- Skylanders: Giants:
- A few of the levels feature the gang's airship, titled the Dread Yacht and serving as the hub, attacked. They promptly crash and need repairs.
- Aerial Attack, the tenth level in the game, takes place entirely on the Dread Yacht as it is being attacked by air pirates.
- At one point in Star Fox Adventures, the dinosaurs of ThornTail Hollow start getting attacked by Egg Snatchers, making Fox have to get rid of them all. The area doesn't have too many other enemies and threats other than Bloops, who aren't really a problem, and the few SharpClaw mooks Fox fights near the game's beginning.
Adventure Games
- Spirit Hunter:
- Spirit Hunter: Death Mark: Usually, Kujou Manor is a safe location where Kazuo and his allies can relax and receive info from Mary. However, the final boss, Mary herself, attacks Kazuo there when he discovers her true nature.
- Spirit Hunter: NG: Unlike the first game, where Kujou Manor was generally a safe location, Akira's apartment is frequently invaded by the spirits of each chapter (with the exceptions of Yuri Takamura, Killer Peach, and Demon Tsukuyomi, who are fought and beaten in one go), often resulting in a Crisis Choice where Akira must fight for his life.
Card Battle Games
- Fate/Grand Order:
- The game starts with the hub area - in this case, the Chaldea headquarters - being bombed by one of the Big Bad's minions and killing most of the people inside. The only reason the Big Bad doesn't attack them again is that he doesn't think they're worth bothering with.
- After said Big Bad is defeated, the Chaldea Headquarters are attacked again by a group claiming to be from the Mages' Association. The kill count is even higher this time, as the survivors can literally be counted on your fingers. From then on, they switch the hub level to the Shadow Border, which is basically a giant tank with living facilities.
- The Shadow Border, being a mobile base, frequently ends up in the middle of combat. Notable examples include the director once outdrifting the Apocalypse. The Shadow Border is later upgraded to the Cool Airship Storm Border and the heroes frequently have to fend off opponents on its deck or, in the case of Cernunnos, fly around it. And there are a few levels taking place inside the hub.
- Their second immobile base, the Wandering Sea, is attacked by the Foreign God and they are forced to evacuate again before it's destroyed by what's basically a black hole.
- This trope is also the premise for some events, such as Elizabeth Bathory (the younger version) cursing the Chaldea Headquarters.
First-Person Shooter
- Borderlands 2: Sanctuary, the players' stronghold and shopping centre, comes under heavy mortar fire after Angel phaseshifts through the fake fusion core and deactivates the shield, forcing the Crimson Raiders to relocate the entire city by activating the engines of the mining ship it's set on. Later on in Commander Lilith & the Fight for Sanctuary, Sanctuary is taken over by the New Pandora Army, and the player spends the entire DLC trying to take it back.
- Call of Duty:
- Call of Duty: Black Ops III: The sixth mission "Vengeance" features the Player and Hendricks rescuing Kane from the Singapore Safehouse. The 54 Immortals got the Safehouse's location beforehand due to leaked intel and attacked it, in revenge for their leader Goh Xiulan's brother Goh Min's death in the hands of Hendricks and the Player, also ransacking the whole city in the process.
- Call Of Duty Infinite Warfare: The Retribution serves as the main hub for the game, but near the end of the game, it ends up crashing on Mars due to Reyes being unwilling to sacrifice it by having the Olympus Mons plow through it to destroy the SDF fleet still moored in orbit, and the hub portion of the final level takes place in its wreckage as the surviving crewmembers prepare to assault the SDF shipyard in a desperate Suicide Mission.
- In The Darkness II, Jackie Estacado's lavish penthouse apartment is usually a safe place to plan your next move, study the artefacts you've collected so far, and shoot the bull with your fellow gangsters. Roughly halfway through the game, the Brotherhood attacks, forcing Jackie to break back into the building to save the day. It ends with Aunt Sarah being horribly murdered.
- In Darkwatch, the eponymous organization's desert citadel becomes a hub level once you start working for them, and you regularly return here to prepare for the next missions. Given that the only way in is via a single heavily-guarded portal, it seems pretty safe; however, in the climax, Lazarus attacks the citadel with a little help from Tala, forcing you to battle your way through the carnage in order to stop the undead.
- Doom Eternal: After the Doom Slayer kills the last of the three Hell Priests fueling Hell's invasion of Earth, Big Bad Khan Maykr retaliates by taking over the computer systems of the Slayer's hub, the Fortress of Doom, cutting off its power and releasing the demons imprisoned within. The Slayer must then deal with the demons and restore power to the fortress in order to continue his crusade, with the demonic Crucible from the first game luckily being the perfect tool to achieve the latter task.
- The End Times: Vermintide: The DLC Waylaid adds an Interquel where the player characters are attacked in the Red Moon Inn, their home base in Ubersreik, explaining the change of location in Vermintide II. They're outraged by the intrusion, as well as by the destruction of the much-abused chandelier.
- Wolfenstein:
- Inverted in Wolfenstein (2009): Isenstadt, the city which comprises the game's Hub Level, is attacked during the entirety of the game, however, halfway through the game, B.J. kills General Zetta, an event which sparks a city-wide revolt that lasts through the rest of the game.
- Wolfenstein: The New Order: After B.J. returns from the Moon and London, he sees the Kreisau Circle's HQ on flames and under attack by Nazi forces. The events that unfold end with the deaths of J/Tekla and kick off the climax of the game.
Isometric Shooter
MMORPGs
- Age of Conan: In the annual Halloween quests, Conarch Village is attacked by werewolves and Khemi is attacked by slavers. The only hub that escapes being attacked is Old Tarantia.
- After Champions Online introduced "Onslaught", players got the ability to turn temporarily into one of three incredibly powerful supervillains. While in this mode, players cannot enter buildings, but they can roam free around the main city's map. While a few areas have defense turrets that will quickly drain their health, most of the map is open to them, so areas that used to be danger-free are now perilous for players who decide to engage with the villains or have no means of avoding them. While there's generally a non-spoken agreement that players as villains will only attack in designated areas, griefers can and will engage into fights with lone players or small groups, which have almost zero chance of surviving. One of these areas happens to be the Renaissance Center, which is the hub area for the entire game. This is where new players show up after creating their character and leaving the Powerhouse (where they allocate their exp points into new powers), where they get a sizable amount of missions, where they can travel to other areas and where they can engage with various of the game's systems and stores. Thanks to defense turrets, a villain cannot roam the entirety of the Ren Cen, but the area right next to the Powerhouse is where they usually decide to fight, which means that what is normally supposed to be a calm place to engage in conversation, grab a few daily missions or do some in-game shopping can end up with a lot of suddenly dead characters.
- EverQuest II makes use of special instances of zones which allows them to be easily repurposed for story reasons, and has used this for live events and other game content.
- In 2009, the game's story saw an unknown force successfully kidnap Lucan D'Lere, the tyrannical ruler of Freeport. Freeport is one of the three evil player cities and serves as the hub, but during this turmoil the entire hub zone was changed into a display of chaos. The Freeport Militia were battling against the Dreadnaughts and other minor factions vying for power and independence from a dictator, and the streets showed destruction and debris. These NPCs posed no threat to players and were cosmetic, but the city still functioned as normal.
- A similar game event happened to both Qeynos and Freeport in 2013, when Kerafyrm's forces of the Awakened had launched an invasion across Norrath. In both cities, the guards were engaged in battle with drakes, drakota, and droags, while dragons flew around in the sky. This was also cosmetic didn't affect the gameplay of the players going about their daily lives.
- 2012 saw a revamp of Qeynos and Freeport in order to update some mostly outdated content. When the game launched, Qeynos and Freeport had racial neighborhoods where the players would live when they started. Those neighborhoods were locked off from players and their homes moved to the Inns in the inner city as a central storyline was introduced for each city. In Qeynos in particular, areas like the Baubleshire, Willowwood, and Starcrest Commune were shut off because there were invading forces and the guards closed off the gates to keep the citizens safe. Certain racial quests and parts of the city timeline allow you to go inside and fight off the undead hordes, gnolls, and demonic invaders. Every neighborhood has some kind of conflict happening.
- The Blood of Luclin expansion brought back the moon of Luclin into the game after being cut off for 500 years, destroyed in a cataclysm, and eventually reformed thanked to time magic. In EQ 1, the city of Fordel Midst served as a neutral city and hub for adventurers before they go explore the moon. In EQ 2's story, the city had been taken over by the lingering ghosts of the invading army and players had to fight their way through the Nexus, Shadowhaven, and the Bazaar in order to rediscover and secure the city. The Reign of Shadows expansion that came out after now uses a cleaned up and reinhabited Fordel Midst as the hub city and launching point for adventurers to explore the dark half of Luclin's surface.
- In the Final Fantasy XI expansion Treasures of Aht Urhgan, the city of Aht Urhgan occasionally goes through an event called Besieged. Normal town functions temporarily shut down as one of the unfriendly neighboring factions pours through the gates and the city becomes a battlefield. The players' responsibility is to keep the foes away from the Astral Candescence in the Hall of Binding. If they're victorious, everything returns to normal and players in all Aht Urhgan areas get a series of buffs; otherwise, the buffs are canceled, and some of the city's residence temporarily disappear.
- Final Fantasy XIV:
- Rhalgr's Reach is established early on in Stormblood as the Ala Mhigan Resistance's safe haven. Concealed by powerful glamour magicks, the hidden alcove serves as the hub for the heroes' efforts to free the country from Garlemald's grasp. But the base is besieged by Garlean forces not long after the Resistance's first major victory in years. Led by Zenos yae Galvus, the crown prince of the Garlean Empire, many members of the Resistance are slaughtered in the ensuing attack. Even the Warrior of Light is powerless to stop Zenos, only buying enough time for the wounded to escape and only surviving due to Zenos deciding that they're Not Worth Killing.
- The climactic battle in the Reflections In Crystal patch (the finale to the Shadowbringers storyline), takes place in the Crystarium, specifically the Exarch's sanctum at the tower's peak, where Elidibus makes his last stand. Oddly enough, the player had fought Emperor Xande in a distant past version of the very same room, long before it became a safe haven.
- Guild Wars 2 has Lion's Arch, the trading hub of the world. Normally, there are no attackable enemies there and it is mostly dedicated to trading, crafting, and related activities. However, in Living World Season 1 the city was attacked and almost completely leveled by Scarlet Briar, and existed in a destroyed state for at least a year in player time. Eventually, it was rebuilt and given a completely new design.
- Neverwinter: During the beginning of the "Elemental Evil" module, the four Elemental Lords all attack Protector's Enclave to attack Archdruid Morningdawn's Tree of Elemental Balance.
- In Episode 4 of Phantasy Star Online 2, Mother Corps launches an assault on the ARKS ship hidden in Earth’s orbit. While the Guardian and Matoi are able to fight them off, due to their photon levels overpowering the dampeners on the ship, Mother is able to make off with Al before they can reach the bridge.
- The Secret World:
- Issue #7 ends with the reveal that Agartha, the normally perfectly safe Portal Crossroad World frequented only by players, has been infected by the Filth. Intruding from the portal to Filth-claimed Tokyo, the Ominous Obsidian Ooze has claimed an entire branch of the World Tree; during the "Whispering Tide" event, this even allows creatures of the Filth to begin manifesting inside the Hollow Earth and fight the players.
- Taken to the next level in the mission "Dark Agartha": you find yourself in a Bad Future in which the Dreamers escape from captivity and lay waste the world, leaving Agartha a monster-infested ruin.
- Star Trek Online:
- In "Second Wave", the cross-faction social hub Deep Space 9 is attacked by Dominion forces in the middle of a multinational summit, forcing the PC to fight their way to their ship through Jem'Hadar boarding parties with the dignitaries in tow.
- "Surface Tension" has the Federation faction's social hub, Earth Spacedock, come under attack by the Undine. The PC boards the station to help take it back and rescue Admiral Quinn. At the time, Cryptic Studios used the battle damage to justify swapping in a new, improved ESD map.
- The raid mission "Brotherhood of the Sword" has the PCs battling Iconian Heralds through the streets of the Klingon faction hub, First City on Qo'nos.
- "Storm Clouds Gather" has Deep Space 9 come under attack again, this time by the Hur'q.
- Star Wars: The Old Republic: Missions in both the Knights of the Fallen Empire and Knights of the Eternal Throne expansions have the Alliance social hub on Odessen come under direct attack by the Eternal Empire.
- World of Warcraft: At the start of Legion, following the Alliance and Horde's unsuccessful assault on the Broken Shore, the Player Character goes to Dalaran, the main hub of the expansion and previously of Wrath of the Lich King, while it's under siege by the Burning Legion. A bit later, you go to the Exodar, the draenei's crashed spaceship turned capital city, while it's dealing with the same scenario.
Platform Games
- In Berserk Boy, the base gets attacked every time the player defeats a major boss. First such attack occurs just outside the base, the subsequent ones has the player clearing out indidual rooms of the hub from enemies.
- In Epic Mickey, once the Storm Blot is unleashed, it sends tentacles around the four hub areas, forcing Mickey to destroy all of them and save the hubs.
- Freedom Planet 2: About half-way through the "Palace Courtyard" stage, the Royal Palace hub is currently under siege by Merga and her troops, and the first boss fight against her is set inside the palace's Command Center.
- In year 7, part 2 of LEGO Harry Potter, the Hogwarts hub level is no longer just home to friendly NPC students, but also to hostile Death Eaters intent on killing you and those NPCs with dark magic. Once you finish the story mode, Hogwarts becomes safe once again.
- Mega Man:
- Mega Man Zero: In the first game, the Resistance's base gets attacked by Neo-Arcadia, and Zero has to help in fighting them off.
- Mega Man ZX: The Guardians' base gets attacked, and Vent/Aile has to aid in fending them off.
- Occurs in Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal, when Dr. Nefarious attacks the Starship Phoenix close to the end of the game.
- Shovel Knight King of Cards has an optional example: if King Knight goes in a secret level, opens the chest, takes the rose inside it then returns to the Glidewing (a floating boat which serves as his officious base), he will discover it is attacked by Sky Pirates. It is revealed that the rose is Propeller Knight's keepsake and that he considers King Knight's theft as a declaration of war, but also that he treats the protagonist's crew as rivals in sky domination.
- Super Mario Bros.:
- Super Mario Sunshine frequently uses this trope as a progress marker, with Proto Piranhas (called "Gatekeepers" here) and Shadow Mario appearing in Delfino Plaza for Mario to fight after collecting enough Shine Sprites. The Proto Piranha fights open new courses when completed, while Shadow Mario drops new nozzles and the Yoshi Egg. After defeating Shadow Mario in every course, Delfino Plaza suddenly floods as he runs off one last time to open Corona Mountain, the game's final level.
- Super Paper Mario: At the end of Chapter 6, the party is treated to a surprise visit from Dimentio, who appears out of nowhere to trap them all in his "exploding box" attack, and send them to the Underwhere.
- Wario World: The Final Boss' stage is the central hub, with all the different areas collapsing and falling away as the boss emerges.
Role-Playing Game
- In Chapter 6 of 7th Dragon III: code VFD, the Nodens corporate building where Unit 13 is headquartered becomes infested with pink Dragonsbane that kills everyone except for Allie, who's formed part of your Misson Control up thos point, reveals herself as the 2nd True Dragon.
- Bug Fables: The Ant Kingdom serves as the game's main Hub City, connecting to most areas in the game and serving as the place where Team Snakemouth receives the new main game missions. In the transition between the fourth and the fifth chapters, the Ant Kingdom gets attacked by the Wasp Kingdom troopers, led by the Wasp King, who is fought at the end of the invasion in a Hopeless Boss Fight that results in him stealing the artifact from the team.
- Destiny 2: Downplayed. The game kicks off with the Cabal attacking and destroying the Tower, which was the safe zone in the first Destiny game.
- Diablo III has this happen several times:
- Near the end of Act II, your mission is to save the people of Caldeum as Belial rains poisonous fireballs all over the city and you are swarmed by snake demons.
- During Act III, you have to fend off a demon attack from the keep after securing the battlements against Azmodan's demons and raising the catapults. Only a small force of them makes it through and they are easily put down. Another attack happens when Leah briefly loses control of the Black Soulstone, unleashing a number of spectral Shadow Demons to attack the party.
- Dragon Age:
- Dragon Age: Origins: Late in the game, your party's camp is attacked by the Darkspawn. If the Warden is of the Dalish Elf Origin, the attackers are led by the corrupted member of their old clan.
- Dragon Age: Inquisition: Happens twice. First, after the player seals the Breach, the Inquisition's provisional base at Haven is attacked by the forces of the Elder One, and the Herald must buy time for the Inquisition to retreat, though Haven is destroyed in the process. Afterwards at the end of the game the Elder One himself then attacks the Inquisition at their new base at Skyhold, which serves as the prelude to the final battle.
- The Elder Scrolls:
- The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion: The major cities of Cyrodiil are walled off and implemented as separate exterior cells from The Overworld, and therefore most combat that can take place in cities is player-instigated. At the end of the game, the Oblivion Crisis culminates in a massive daedric invasion on the Imperial City from inside the walls, led by Mehrunes Dagon himself.
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim:
- Dragon attacks can happen in cities and other settlements when you're looking to hit the inn for the night or shopping for supplies, often requiring you to drop what you're doing and deal with the threat. The larger cities like Whiterun are walled-off cells like in Oblivion so dragons cannot get in, but vampires in the Dawnguard expansion can spawn inside. They can’t do this in the Special Edition, but that doesn’t stop vampires labeled as "Travelers" constantly getting in and attacking you if you side with the Dawnguard.
- Inverted in the Civil War storyline: the Player Character takes part in assaults on the opposing faction's major cities. The campaign starts at Whiterun with the PC either defending the city against the Stormcloaks or helping them capture it, and ends with an attack on the opposing faction's capital.
- Fable:
- In the endgame of Fable, the Big Bad singlehandedly overruns the Guild of Heroes, the player character's Mission Control and home base since childhood. Their final confrontation occurs in the chamber where the PC was first declared a Hero.
- In Fable III, the Sanctuary becomes flooded with black goo during the first encounter with the Crawler, preventing the player from using the map. This also happens when the Crawler invades the Sanctuary toward the end.
- In Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days, the penultimate level sees Roxas having to fight his way out of the castle where he buys supplies and chats with his allies in safety, fighting monsters in a world completely devoid of them before. The twist is that the enemies Roxas is fighting were once his allies and the boss is even your Mission Control, all because Roxas has betrayed the team he's worked with the whole game.
- As with the previous game, Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords retains the Ebon Hawk as a safe zone where you can build lightsabers, chat with companions, unearth secrets, and play pazaak. This time around, though, the Hawk can actually be boarded by hostile forces several times: first, by Darth Sion's henchmen at the Peragus mining colony; then by the Sith apprentice sent after you by Darth Nihilus though this ends with said apprentice giving up halfway through the battle and swearing allegiance to you; and finally, by a gang of thugs who want revenge on you for stealing their parking space. Partial credit for one cutscene on Nar Shaddaa where a group of Bounty Hunters attack the ship to try to take the Jedi Exile prisoner while the PC is elsewhere: that one is such an Epic Fail that the game does a Battle Discretion Shot before the party members at the ship curbstomp them on the landing pad.
- In Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, Beanbean town, located in the center of the map, serves as the hub that Mario and Luigi return to between missions. It started destroyed due to the attack of the Big Bad Cackletta, but is rebuilt soon after. After clearing Joke's End, Mario and Luigi return to Beanbean town to find it destroyed again, this time by Bowser's Castle bombarding the place. Fortunately, all the shops are still standing and remain open for business.
- Mass Effect:
- Mass Effect: The culminating mission of the game is "Race Against Time: Final Battle" where Commander Shepard follows Saren to the Citadel to prevent him from transferring control of the hub to Sovereign who would then initiate the Reaper Invasion. By this time, Shepard has spent a great deal of time exploring the Citadel and is very familiar with how to navigate the station. However, with Saren currently at the controls, none of these pathways are available. Shepard has to find an alternate route, all the while fighting swarms of Geth and Krogan.
- Mass Effect 2: After Commander Shepard and crew gathers the tech that will allow them to go through the Omega 4 relay, EDI (the onboard AI) recommends that the Shepard and all the main party members head for the next port of call via shuttle while she tests the installation of the new tech. While Shepard is gone, the Collectors invade and the player is put in control of Joker, the ship's pilot. With the assistance of EDI, Joker sneaks past Praetorians and Scions to release EDI's Restraining Bolt, allowing her to reboot the Normandy's defenses and eject the remaining Collectors out the airlocks. Joker is successful but once it's over, he finds that all the rest of the crew have been abducted.
- Mass Effect 3: Cerberus, which has been co-opted by the Reapers between games, attempts to mount a coup d'etat against the Citadel Council midway through the game, forcing Shepard to battle through the Citadel a second time to reach and protect the Council.
- Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate: The city of Dundorma, when Rusted Kushala Daora finally arrives. The whole city will be under curfew, with several torches lit in the main plaza to guide hunters to the Battlegrounds and help in the mission to repel the Elder Dragon.
- Neverwinter Nights:
- The original campaign starts with a cultist attack against the Temple of Tyr in Neverwinter, which has taken delivery of several magical creatures intended to be ingredients for a cure for the magical plague affecting the city. The creatures escape in the confusion, forcing the PC to spend the first chapter recapturing them. Due to the ongoing plague, the Temple serves as their hub.
- Hordes of the Underdark starts at an inn in Waterdeep that sits over one of the entrances to Undermountain and acts as the Hub Level for chapter 1. The plot is kicked off when drow from Undermountain attack the inn. The companions from the first campaign dive into Undermountain in pursuit of the surviving raiders, and the PC follows in their wake.
- Neverwinter Nights 2:
- The Player Character's home base for most of the game is the Sunken Flagon inn in Neverwinter. Near the end of chapter 1, the inn is attacked by the githyanki in an attempt to capture the PC to retrieve the fragment of the Sword of Gith lodged in their chest.
- During Chapter 3, the PC shifts bases to Crossroad Keep, taking command of the fortress with the full knowledge that the King of Shadows will be attacking it with his army in the foreseeable future.
- Paper Mario:
- In Paper Mario 64, Toad Town is a harmless area with a shop and a free health-restoring Toad House. When Mario returns after chapter 3, it's being ransacked by Shy Guys, and many of the town's residents have had items stolen from them. While adventuring in Shy Guy's Toy Box, the main focus of the chapter, Mario collects the stolen items and can return them to their owners.
- Paper Mario: Sticker Star starts with Bowser's troops invading Decalburg, crumpling up Toads, completely rolling up the town, and demolishing the Sticker Fest grounds. Once Mario rescues the Toads, they help unroll Decalburg and restore the town. The sticker shop and Sling-a-Thing stands then open up. However, the Sticker Fest grounds are still a wreck, and if Mario goes back to them after recovering a Royal Sticker, they're slowly cleaned up and repaired until it's all better by the end of the game.
- Paper Mario: Color Splash: Port Prisma, which turns out to be the game's hub world, is completely abandoned during Mario, Peach, and Toad's first visit. They soon meet Huey, a paint bucket, who helps Mario restore uncolored spots around the town. They venture to collect a Mini Paint Star, fighting off enemies and restoring colorless Toads (one of which grants access to the shop), and get access to Ruddy Road. At the Crimson Tower, Mario finds a bridge-builder Toad, and once he is rescued, he fixes a bridge in Port Prisma, which grants Mario access to a cafe and a post office.
- In Paper Mario: The Origami King, during Mario's first visit to Toad Town, there are giant Paper Macho Goombas roaming around and eating pieces of the landscape. Many buildings are closed off and the music is slightly ominous and unnerving. Once Mario defeats the Goombas, the music changes to a happier arrangement of the title theme, and he can get access to the shops and services by rescuing Toads around the world; it'll go completely back to normal around one third into the game.
- Pathfinder: Kingmaker:
- During Chapter 1, Oleg's Trading Post serves as the player's hub. The trading post is attacked by bandits working for the Starter Villain midway through the chapter.
- The climax of Chapter 3 has the Player Character's capital city come under attack by a horde of monsters summoned from the First World by waterborne "seeds", capped off by a gigantic owlbear. Depending on your choices immediately beforehand, one of two recurring NPCs (either Kesten Garess or Jhod Kavken) can die here (defending the city or trying to enter the chapter's dungeon, respectively). The owlbear's pelt is made into a rug in the city tavern afterwards.
- Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous:
- Midway through Chapter 1, the Defender's Heart inn, which has been fortified by the Mendevian Crusader survivors as a base to strike back at the demons occupying Kenabres, comes under a full-scale attack by the Cult of Baphomet and an assortment of low-level demons. Repelling this attack inflicts enough casualties on the demon army that the Crusaders are subsequently able to retake the city.
- In Chapter 2, as the Crusader army approaches Drezen, the army camp serves as the hub and moves forward as the armies defeat certain demon armies. Near Drezen, the camp is attacked by gargoyles who carry off half the Player Party and dozens of soldiers, including Irabeth Tirabade.
- Pillars of Eternity has several examples of these:
- The PC's keep, Caed Nua, can come under attack of monster from time to time. The player can choose to let these attacks resolve themselves (through the use of guard units) or head back to the keep themselves to defend it. If they choose the latter, they'll be placed in an instanced version of their keep, which is under attack from monsters.
- Somewhere throughout the story, Lord Gathbin, a haughty and evil nobleman, tries to lay claim on Caed Nua, stating that it's part of his legacy. The local authorities rule in his favor, but oblige him to compensate the PC for the reclaiming and restoration of his keep. Unhappy with this part of the verdict, Lord Gathbin tries to seize your keep by force, through the assembly of an army. While this battle does not take place at your keep (but rather at a field near your keep), visiting your keep at a certain point throughout the questline will prompt this battle and render your keep inaccesible until the battle is resolved.
- After Thaos kills the Duc of Defiance Bay during the animancy hearings, the city falls into a state of unrest and rioting. During this period (which ends as soon as you reach Twin Elms), the player and their party can't interact with any of the traders in Defiance Bay, nor enter the city once they leave. As the city serves as a secondary hub (with respect to your keep) with a large amount of side quests, this sudden change can be quite distressing for anyone not prepared for it. Even after the riots end, the player can't enter the sanitarium in Brackenbury anymore, as it has been burned to the ground, making it permnanently missable. Furthermore, everyone in Hadret house (with the exception of one questgiver) has been killed as well, although this has a much smaller effect on overall gameplay.
- A major plot development in Pokémon Red and Blue and Pokémon Gold and Silver is when their respective hub cities Saffron City and Goldenrod City are taken over by Team Rocket, centered around Silph Co. and the Radio Tower respectively.
- In Shin Megami Tensei IV's Chaos ending, your former hub city, the Eastern Kingdom of Mikado, is raided by demons. Though in this case, it's less due to hostile forces and more due to you taking over the place, as you've sided with them to usher in a world of freedom.
- Stella Glow: Lambert, the Hub City where Alto and his team rests when they're not on a mission and the heart of the kingdom, stops being safe from Chapter 8 onwards: The angels begin invading it and the world after the Anthem Program inadvertently grants a gateway for them, and during much of Chapter 9 they have to defend it from a bigger wave of angels who plan to destroy the city for good. It becomes a safe location once again afterwards, save for a brief invasion near the end of Chapter 10.
- Super Lesbian Animal RPG: After confronting the party on the Celestial Wasteland, as a diversion as it turns out Javis succeeds in corrupting Greenridge by repairing the Reality Scrambler beneath it that they had previously damaged in the first dungeon. The result is Glitchridge, a mangled warped version of the town, populated by Javis's minions that serves as a Remixed Level Dungeon Town.
- Valkyria Chronicles II: The hub level, Lanseal Royal Academy, gets attacked by the Rebels during a school festival as the August story mission. After the attack, the school is a lot emptier than usual with many students either killed or leaving, with only Class G left to continue the fight.
- In the climax of Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, you end up back in the starting hub level of Santa Monica; it was normally safe unless you got on the bad side of the police, but by this point the place has been declared a combat zone because you've been framed for the murder of Nines Rodriguez and Prince Lacroix has called a Blood Hunt on you. The streets are now patrolled by hostile vampires and the only way you can escape them is by making it to the cab waiting for you on the other side of the level. Worse still, the alleys and sewers that would normally allow you a shortcut to the cab have been blocked off.
- Xenoblade Chronicles X: During Chapter 8, the game's Hub City (New Los Angeles) is under attack by the Ganglion military. In the duration of the event, Rook and their team have to dispatch the incoming mooks that attempt to enter the city on foot (aerial enemy forces try to attack from above, but they're being handled by the city's army offscreen). At one point, some enemies manage to get in and they have to be dealt with as well. After this chapter's completion, and provided that certain prior sidequests have been completed, you can unlock an Affinity Mission with Phog and Frye where you have to protect the city once again from incoming enemies. Finally, near the end of the game, you can unlock a normal sidequest where a friendly Prone asks you to protect the city yet again, but this time from wild creatures that approach it during their path of migration. In all these cases, it is not necessary to worry about the safety of the city proper (it's not based on Tower Defense mechanics), as enemies will always attack you instead and the challenge is based on surviving during a specific time limit (usually three to five minutes).
- Wasteland 3: In the endgame, fighting breaks out across the game's Hub City of Colorado Springs, and the Desert Rangers are forced to choose between remaining loyal to the Patriarch, or joining Angela Deth's rebels and overthrowing the Patriarch's regime. Alternatively, the Rangers can choose to throw their lot in with the brutal slaver warlord Ironclad Cordite and lead the plains gangs to Rape, Pillage, and Burn the city. The game even has an achievement, "Wasteland Reaper", awarded for killing everyone in downtown Colorado Springs.
Stealth Games
- In the penultimate level of Dishonored, the Hound Pits Pub - a site normally used as a hideout for Corvo between missions, a meeting place for the rebellion, and a safe haven for the newly-rescued Emily Caldwin - is attacked and taken over by the Watch. Now, Corvo has to take out the occupying forces, find out what happened to Emily, and gear up for the final showdown with the Lord Regent.
Survival Horror
- Amnesia: The Dark Descent: The game has multiple Hub Levels that the hostile monsters lurking within Brennenburg cannot enter, allowing the player to rest before tackling the castle's many horrors. As you complete the levels within those hubs, however, the latter will gradually sport anomalies such as blood-poring fountains and Meat Moss — the calling card of the Shadow pursuing Daniel. Downplayed, however, in that the player can still be safe in the hubs regardless.
- As traditional for the franchise, whenever you enter a save room in Resident Evil 3 (Remake) you're safe from being pursued by monsters, even Nemesis, who notoriously likes to follow you through doors. Play in higher difficulty settings, though, and prepare to soil your pants at the sight of Nemesis opening the door, entering the room and getting himself between you and the exit in the very tight, small space that usually make these places. Fortunately, it doesn't happen in every save room, and it stops happening after a certain point in the game, but when it does, if you're unprepared, your heart is bound to skip a beat.
- Throughout Resident Evil Village, areas containing save points are usually off-limits to enemies, to the point that they're forced to break off pursuit as soon as you're inside; for good measure, most of these areas are run by the Duke, allowing you a chance to stock up on supplies. However, the save point in the Beneviento Estate pulls the rug out from under you by giving every impression of being just as safe as the others - right up until you solve one of the final puzzles. Suddenly, the basement is being patrolled by a giant fetus-monster, and it will follow you into the save point. Because you have no weapons at this time, your only options are to hide in a locker or run for your life.
- Silent Hill 4: Room 302 serves as both Henry Townshend's Trauma Inn and prison from which he must escape. During the first half of the game, returning to the room will restore Henry's health over time; from then on, signaled by the ceiling fan crashing down on the floor, the healing is gone and harmful hauntings will pop up periodically and harm Henry if he gets near them until they're fully exorcised.
Third-Person Shooter
- In Warframe, Relays are areas where Tenno can meet to go on missions, participate in Player Versus Player via the Conclave, interact with most syndicates, and buy items from Darvo, with no risk of attack by enemies. However, during Operation Eyes of Blight, Vay Hek launched a fleet of Balor Fomorians to take down the relays. Much to the shock of the community, those Fomorians that were not successfully repelled outright destroyed those relays, and they haven't come back (excluding one Relay per platform, which had an entire event focused on rebuilding it). Now, there are periodic events where one faction amasses a fleet of powerful ships/robots (Fomorian Armada for the Grineer, Razorback Armada for the Corpus) to lay siege to one of the remaining relays. People take these very seriously because they know from experience that the devs really will destroy these relays.
- In Freedom Fighters (2003), part way through the game, the Resistance's sewer base comes under attack by Soviet forces, when it's revealed that your mentor figure was a spy, trying to get all the rogue elements in one place. and you have to escape the level with what forces you can rescue, setting up in a new hub.
Turn-Based Strategy
- Half-way through Fire Emblem: Three Houses, the monastery of Garrech Mach, which serves as your base of operations, is attacked by the armies of the Flame Emperor, prompting a desperate defense or assault, if you choose to side with the attackers. In the Crimson Flower route, in which you join the Flame Emperor, you return after the Time Skip to see your allies in control of the monastery, but on other routes, you must defeat some bandits in order to reclaim the monastery.
- The base invasions in the X-COM series. In most of them, your land base(s) are detected by the aliens and they launch an offensive against it/them. In XCOM 2 your mobile flying base is forced down by an EMP emitter and you have to destroy the emitter while fending off waves of enemy troops trying to board you.
Wide Open Sandbox
- In Batman: Arkham Knight, GCPD headquarters is the safest and most regularly-visited areas in Gotham; apart from Batman's base in the clocktower and Wayne Tower, it's one of the few locations that hasn't been taken over by criminals or the Arkham Knight's militia, and you regularly return to drop off captured supervillains. However, late in the game, Scarecrow sends the militia after GCPD, resulting in a full-scale siege; if you can't destroy the tanks or stop the troops on the rooftop, they will break in and kill everyone in the building.
- In Dead Rising 2, the emergency shelter is invaded by a large horde of zombies, and the survivors Chuck has rescued, as well as Chuck himself have to kill the zombies, while Chuck also has to secure the gate that was opened by Sullivan. In Dead Rising 2: Off the Record, it's Frank that's doing the saving and has to secure the gate that was opened by Stacy.
- In Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise, Kenshiro settles down at the city of Eden for the duration of the game, after the prologue ends. While it's usually a safe haven where Kenshiro can get supplies, rest up, and play mini-games, it sometimes comes under attack during story events. Early on, the gates are destroyed by the Army of Ruin, which Kenshiro must fend off. It gets worse two thirds of the way through when Thouzer's army conquers Eden while all the heroes are occupied elsewhere, as almost all of the shops are closed except for the talisman dealer's, so Thouzer must be defeated before the city becomes accessible again.
- In Grand Theft Auto V, the homes of the three player characters are the only locations in San Andreas that could remotely be considered safe, especially since cops can't follow you in and your wanted rating resets once you get inside. However, the mission "Meltdown" features Michael's house being attacked by Merryweather mercenaries in the employ of Devin Weston, forcing Michael to rush home to fight off the mooks and save his family.
- After escaping the simulation in Saints Row IV, you and the rest of the Saints set up shop aboard a stolen Zin ship and repurpose it as a base in your attempts to stop the Alien Invasion. It's usually a safe place to chat, read files, romance fellow gangsters, and waste time until your next foray into the simulation... up until "All Hands On Deck." Here, the Zin finally track you down thanks to Vice President Keith David and board the ship in an effort to recapture you, forcing you to fight them off; worse still, it's a real-world mission, so you don't have any of your superpowers.
