Invincible Minor Minion

"Warning: some enemies cannot be killed. Beware of these immortal creeps!"

— From the Super Mario Bros instruction manual

This is a small videogame creature that just can't die. They will still be standing when the Big Bad falls. People try to kill them for the challenge. Sometimes, the game will have a rare weapon or powerup that can take them out where the rest of the player's arsenal has failed.

Rarely is it explained why only the Mooks are Made of Indestructium while the higher-ranking villains remain killable. Also, it would make much more sense for them to be holding the key than the bosses. Typically, they are put into the game for purely mechanical reasons such as preventing the player character from going off the map, or to areas they shouldn't have access to for story reasons, or for more gameplay purposes like to force them to use stealth, or pushing players into hazards.

Compare the Boss in Mook Clothing, which is a minion that, while killable, is strong enough to pass off as an outright Boss Battle.

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Examples:

The Legend of Zelda

• The Legend of Zelda:
  • "Bubbles" are flaming skulls that disable Link's ability to use a sword for a while. There is absolutely no way to kill them. This is even worse in the Second Quest, where two new versions are added — a red one which takes away the sword ability completely, and a blue one which restores it. Touching the first requires touching the second, which is sometimes in a completely different room. You could also drink a Water of Life to end the red-Bubble effect, but with the Nintendo Hard already cranked Up to Eleven in the second quest, this is widely considered a bad move. In most of the 2D games following the original, Bubbles often remain invincible to attacks, but in Zelda II: The Adventure of Link and the 3D games, Bubbles take regular damage (though they're usually very tough or protected by their flames).
  • Ghinis spawned by disturbing graves cannot be harmed — Link's attacks pass right through them.
• The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past:
  • Nothing can kill a wandering thief in the Lost Woods.
  • The Deadrocks found on Death Mountain are invulnerable to almost every item in Link's arsenal, only being stunned for a short time before recovering. The only way to kill them is to use the Quake Medallion or Magic Powder on them first, which transforms them into weaker enemies. The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds toned them down a bit, where now the Magic Hammer can smash them to pieces after being turned to stone.
  • The Anti-Fairies that circle around blocks or walls in the dungeons though Magic Powder can turn them into normal Fairies... except the four in a particular room of the Eastern Palace, who are immune.
• In many of the Zelda games, attacking the normally peaceful Cuccos will cause them to swarm and attack the player. Attacking one in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess earns you a brief body-swapping experience with it. They're indestructible, with rare exceptions.^note A quest in the GBA remake of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past temporarily lets you "erase" them by catching them in a one-slot basket and then catching something else. You can also kill them in The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening by way of the Magic Powder or Magic Rod.
• Chu Chus in The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask can be "killed" in the sense that you hit them with an attack and they pop, but without fail they will reconstitute themselves in about 10 seconds or so no worse for wear. They're also able to completely No-Sell Goron Link's punch, which only makes them briefly jiggle. Since they are a guaranteed item drop of a heart, magic container, or arrow (depending on the color), one serves as a platform when frozen, and they are a slow-moving weak absolute minor threat at best, this benefits you more than anything since you can farm items after resetting time and they have a habit of appearing in rooms where arrows and magic are needed.
• The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker: The big pig in Outset Island is immortal and also deals out more damage per hit than nearly every enemy and boss in the game (three hearts, only matched by the Mighty Darknut's and Ganondorf's strongest attacks). The other two pigs you can optionally catch are only half-immortal; you can't kill them, but they die anyway.
• Blade Traps appear in several Zelda games, and they're almost always invincible. In The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Link temporarily takes control of a giant statue with a giant hammer that can smash the things, and it's glorious.

Mega Man

• The archetypical "piece" of a character is the Metool/Met helmet from Mega Man. Metools resemble a face wearing a construction helmet. While he could be beaten easily enough when he peeks out, with his helmet down he deflects all of Mega Man's attacks (except for latter Mega Man games, starting in Mega Man X8, where the characters have ways of getting through that defense and flip the Met over, exposing their vulnerable undersides). This has led fans to wonder what the heck those helmets are made of, and why doesn't Dr. Wily just make a robot out of it?
  • In Mega Man 4, Ring Man's weapon can apparently slice right through this metal as it can destroy hiding Metools or Garyoby (those little assholes who speed up when you're on their platform) with no problem.
  • In Mega Man 6, using the Power Armor mode of Rush armor lets you use a charged up punch to destroy a hiding Metool.
  • In Mega Man 11, the titular Blue Bomber's charged weapon can't break through this metal but it can knock enemies who are hiding behind it off-balance, rendering them vulnerable to buster fire until they manage to get their guard up again.
  • In MS Paint Masterpieces, a webcomic retelling of Mega Man, he did. It also goes on to say that the armor works by spreading the force of attacks and sending it around their body. Since Enker has multiple plates of armor, overloading him with energy while he has no way to get rid of it makes him explode.
    • Enker was actually a boss in Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge. Normally completely invulnerable to all weapons, one of his moves absorbs shots from Mega Man's standard Arm Cannon into his sword and unleashes a wave of energy as a counter, and only then do they damage him.
• Gabyoalls/Spines are unaffected by all weapons save a couple. They're those low, disk things with two spikes that move faster when Mega Man's on the same platform. Also a spiny.
• In 3 (DOS), there are turrets randomly placed around the levels, usually in platform-heavy sections. You can't destroy them, no matter how hard you try or with any of your special weapons. All you can do is stand in a safe place and memorize their patterns, and hope to dodge their insanely fast bullets/lasers. There is no "or".
• The concept arises again in Mega Man Legends with the Servbots, mostly incompetent flunkies to the game's Goldfish Poop Gang. Completely invulnerable to all forms of damage. In the spinoff game The Misadventures of Tron Bonne you can exploit this by sending them into otherwise fatal dangers to retrieve treasure. They're not completely invulnerable since you can knock them out, but they will always be back to normal once you return to the same room.
• The Mets in the Mega Man Battle Network series, while still impervious to most attacks while hidden under their helmets, can be destroyed with any of a number of attacks that can penetrate guards. The Appull viruses in the fifth game, however, are completely incapable of being harmed by direct attacks while closed up, even ones with the aforementioned property.
• Mega Man X6 has the Nightmare Bugs and Nightmare Mantises, the latter of which is an enemy that appears in Commander Yammark's stage and the former a stage "hazard" that appears in certain stages after going through Yammark's stage. The former has no form of attack but is invincible to almost all damage, mainly meant to serve as an annoyance getting in the way of X and Zero's attacks that won't leave unless struck several times, and the latter is a decently tough enemy with annoying attacks that can be destroyed but will regenerate from a wire-frame left behind after a short time to keep harassing you. The only way to permanently destroy either of them is to use the Yammar Option obtained from beating Yammark.
• Mega Man ZX Advent has the Pulse Cannons, only located in the Floating Ruins. They are stationary and incapable of actually hurting you themselves outside of collision damage, but they're almost completely invincible and hated for one reason: their pulse attack disables the jump ability and all related functions for a short period of time, meaning you can't jump, fly, hover, or air dash in any of your forms with the sole exception of Model H's falling glide. Considering the abundance of Bottomless Pits in this level, they're hell to deal with, and their pulses are one of if not the fastest attacks in the game (for reference, it's impossible to avoid their pulses even with Chronoforce's Time Stop in effect). The only thing in the game capable of destroying them is Bifrost's bite attack (and Bifrost is one of the last Pseudoroids fought and unlocked as a playable form, and definitely isn't available the first time you need to traverse the ruins). The only saving grace is that they fire only if they detect you using a jump-related ability while within their range and the game is merciful enough to provide enough pathways that they can be avoided on a straight run (though if you're searching the level for collectibles or side-quests, that's another story).

Super Mario Bros.

• Super Mario Bros.: The Fire Bars and Podoboos (fireballs), the latter being listed among the enemies in the manual (so not merely a trap). Later games reclassified the Fire Bars as hazards, as noted in Super Mario Maker 2 which groups it in the Gizmo category. In Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, there is one castle where you have the opportunity to kick a Koopa shell at one. You get points for the kill, but a new one spawns immediately in the same spot.
• Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels: Buzzy Beetles are effectively rendered this in World 9-1. They're already immune to fireballs, and because it's an underwater level, they also can't be stomped on.
• Super Mario Bros. 2 has Phanto, who begins chasing you as soon as you pick up a key. However, he stops chasing you once you put the key down. He'll start chasing you again when you pick it up, so it's mostly a game of either out-running him or drop-and-pick cycles. There's a glitch that allows you to kill it, but it's difficult to pull off.
• Super Mario Bros. 3:
  • There's the trap-enemy Rotodisc, which can be killed in the latter game by using the Tanooki suit to turn into a statue and fall on it at the right moment. The same thing can be done with the Boos.
  • Jelectros are truly invincible, but completely stationary. Munchers are almost equally invincible, but pressing a P Switch turns them into coins.
  • This game also is the first appearance of the Dry Bones, who will get up after most attacks. Only invincibility, or rare powerups (the Hammer Bros. suit or the Tanooki suit) can defeat them permanently. In later games, Dry Bones varies in how difficult it is to kill.
• Super Mario World:
  • Boos and Big Boos shrug off most attacks and can only be killed by sliding down a hill at them.
  • It also has Ball 'N Chains and Bullet Bill's third cousin, Torpedo Ted, the course in which they appear is practically a Painfully Slow Projectile variant of Bullet Hell.
  • In the GBA remake, you can defeat Torpedo Ted by playing as Luigi, bringing a Yoshi into the level, and having him eat other enemies and spit them at the Teds.
  • Eeries (blue dinosaurs in ghost houses) can only be taken out by a Starman.
  • "Invincible" Koopa Troopas are claimed to be this in the manual, they result when a shelless Koopa goes into a yellow shell and flashes like when Mario has a Starman, and although they are fairly hard to kill, a Starman easily takes them out, and they can even be taken out by a spin jump, a Yoshi jump, or when eaten by Yoshi. Yoshi can gain all three shell powers at once by eating them.
• Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins: Space Zone has invincible stars (not stars that turn you invincible, stars that are invincible and will kill you). Like Jelectros, they only appear in one stage, a frustrating auto-scroll. Unlike Jelectros, some can move. There are also Gordos, but they only shake a little when Mario comes near them and are not hostile.
• Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island:
  • Whether they hop or march, Tap Taps are virtually indestructible. The only way to get rid of them is to knock them into a bottomless pit or into lava or use a fire Watermelon or Ice Watermelon. Sure enough, when you face Tap Tap as a halfway boss, you have to knock it into the lava under the arena. If there are several, you can knock one into the others to kill them.
  • Spitting or rolling a Pill Bug at them (like in 1-7) is one of the few ways to deal with them. You'll face another one as a sub-boss in a scrolling level. Unlike the boss fight, there's no lava - only apparently bottomless pits. If you knock him in, he'll eventually jump out again.
  • Blindfold Boo has no vulnerabilities. Fortunately, as the name implies, he can't see you; he'll just make a beeline for wherever he last heard you.
• Super Mario 64:
  • The snowmen in Cool, Cool Mountain and Snowman's Land. While the jumping variety are truly unbeatable, the kind that pop up to throw snowballs at you can be defeated by running circles around them and making them dizzy.
  • The Kuromame enemies, the tiny black balls that spit fire at you. Though in the DS remake, Yoshi can eat them for a single-use fire breath.
  • The Heave Ho enemies, a rare enemy that only appears in Wet-Dry World and Tick Tock Clock. They can't directly harm Mario unless you let them hurl him high into the air, but they're completely invincible to Mario's attacks.
  • Bubba^note replaced by Boss Bass in the DS remake, a giant Cheep-Cheep that only shows up in the large section of Tiny-Huge Island. While he moves slowly, he can kill you instantly if he swallows you, and it's absolutely impossible to kill him.
  • The infamous "Mystery Goomba" in Bowser in the Sky, a Goomba that accidentally spawns out of bounds on the level's death barrier (Goombas are programmed to appear in groups of three, and the platform they're on is just too narrow, making one of them spawn off of it). The Goomba is absolutely impossible to reach or kill, even with hacking or every glitch exploitation and TAS trick in the book. Even the legendary Mario 64 player pannenkoek2012 hasn't been able to find a way to reach it.
• Super Mario Sunshine has the infamous Cataquacks, duck-like enemies that chase Mario down and fling him upwards with their beaks. They can be stunned briefly by spraying them with water, and they can be properly defeated by launching them with a Dune Bud, but the ones that don't go near said buds are totally invincible.
• Super Mario Galaxy: Thwomps are so massive that there's no way to defeat them, not even with the Rainbow Star.
• Super Mario 3D Land: The Fuzzies. This isn't the only game they appear in, but it's the only one where they're invulnerable to everything except the Star.
• Super Mario Kart: There are invincible Thwomps on Rainbow Road. Touching them makes you spin out and lose coins. Even the Star item does nothing to them.
• Mario Kart 64 has the Chain Chomps, although they only appear on Rainbow Road.
• Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door: The Spiny can roll into a ball and make itself completely immune to damage. Its upgraded version uses the invulnerability time to boost its power then attack before uncurling itself.
• Gordos and Munchers in the Something series. The Munchers even get a level, Hungry Vegetation, to themselves.
• Piranha Gabyoalls in Super Mario World: Piranha Island are immune to every attack in Mario's arsenal, but they only appear in Thorn Temple.

Other

• The manual to Alex Kidd in Miracle World states: "Don't try to attack the FLAME. It's invincible. Just avoid it all costs."
• The shadow at the fireplace and the dancers in Alone in the Dark (1992) became this if you ever touched them.
• In The Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures, the ghosts in the "Boo! Haunted House" stage cannot be killed, but can be frozen by the Glitch Gremlin.
• Arx Fatalis suffers from a bug where attacking a zombie or a mummy with a weapon enchanted to Paralyze may make them completely invincible. The only thing you can do in such case is run away; mummies are arguably worse as they move faster and can cast Paralyze back at you, which is really annoying.
• Banjo-Kazooie.
  • The living pipes in Rusty Bucket Bay not only can't be killed, but they can hurt you when you're using Wonderwing, which is supposed to make you invincible (though that part could just be game designer oversight.)
  • Some of the enemies in Banjo-Tooie are impossible or all but impossible to kill. Being able to kill them wouldn't help much, given the speed with which enemies respawn in Banjo-Tooie.
  • Conga the Ape is technically this, as you can't completely defeat him, but three hits will make him give up his jiggy. Attack him again and it's a game of avoiding more and more oranges until you're knocked off the podium.
• Battletoads:
  • There's the rubber ducky of doom, who cannot be killed - just flipped over when defeated, coming to its senses a few seconds after. And you can attack it only from behind, otherwise it will unleash a vicious lightning-fast pecking assault which can send your toad crashing through the wall.
  • And then there's Scuzz, who you race in Rat Race, and who can only be killed with a very-hard-to-pull-off glitch.
  • The final level, "The Revolution", has Daddy Swellcheeks. When it appears, all you can do is hold onto a mast to avoid being blown away until it leaves. There's also the lone Yellow Swellcheeks, which cannot be hit, only be dodged.
• The Binding of Isaac:
  • Any enemy made out of stone is immune to anything save for the needle-tears of Afterbirth's Euthanasia or the Chaos Card. Most of the stone enemies are stationary mooks that remain even after clearing the room, but Afterbirth+ has the Stoney, a statue version of the Fatty enemies that moves around and dies when all killable enemies in the room are dead.
  • The Death's Head enemies are floating skulls that bounce around the room diagonally and are immune to anything that is not a rare, special One-Hit Kill weapon. They die when all other killable enemies die. Afterbirth introduces two sub-varieties that can be killed, and one of the varieties must be killed to clear the room. Repentance has more varieties in its alternate path, including a ghost-like one that moves in a wave-like pattern.
• Bug Only one that's actually an enemy as the other "invincible" enemies are traps of sorts. The spiny lizards of Reptilia could not be killed via any means. Not even the Zap Cap, or Stunt Bug would even touch them. Your only option was to avoid them like the plague.
• An archetypal enemy in Castlevania is the "blood" or "red" monster, usually a skeleton. These enemies never die permanently — they simply collapse into a pile of bones, much like Dry Bones above, and get back up a few seconds later. Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin actually gave two ways for the player to kill Red enemies... one a special spell with a casting time so long that the only time you'll ever cast it is when it's required by the plot, and another a special weapon obtained by a late-game quest, when you probably will never see such an enemy again and wouldn't really care about the damage from any you do chance to encounter. Oh, and they give mediocre experience if you do take them out. You could also kill them with Spyha's ice spell in Castlevania III. Meanwhile, Castlevania: Curse of Darkness has an Innocent Devil that will randomly cast a spell that will destroy one undead monster onscreen, even the red skeletons.
  • Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia also has red skeletons, which can be killed, but only by using the dominus glyph union, which kills you as well.
  • The skeletons in Undying were the same way, they'd always get back up after being taken down with conventional weapons. The only way to lay them to rest was to cast Dispel on them while they were standing.
  • The blood skeletons in Terranigma function the same way. However, if you dish out enough damage, they stay collapsed and vanish offscreen.
  • The giant skulls in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night's inverted castle have the standard "not phased by anything" invincibility, although you can use Soul Steal on them to heal yourself.
• In Cave Story, Basil races back and forth across the bottom of the Egg Corridor and can kill you in one hit. You can't kill Basil.
  • There's also Rolling in the Sacred Grounds. Two of them accompany the Heavy Press during the fight with it.
• The fifth (haunted warehouse) level of Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers 2 has a room where the lights turn on and off and the background portraits' faces turn to skulls it the dark. If, however, the lights turn off with a portrait onscreen, it will spawn a little cloud-like ghost which follows you and is completely invulnerable to any of your attacks.
• Commander Keen: In the first trilogy, almost all robotic enemies are impervious to damage, even the ones that can only push you around. In the second, most unkillable enemies are the tough rather than minor ones (such as the Berkeloids and Dopefish in Secrets of the Oracle, or Robo Red and Sphereful in The Armaggeddon Machine).
• Dark Castle has many enemies that can be stunned or knocked down but not killed. In some cases this barely makes sense, such as the torturer whom you go after with a spiked mace.
• The Skeletons in the Catacombs in Dark Souls can be killed, but they'll keep resurrecting until the nearby necromancer is slain. They can also be permanently destroyed if they are slain with a Divine weapon.
• Dead Rising 2 features looters that are only marginally tougher than zombies - except if they're behind the counter of their stores (which somehow makes them invincible.)
• The video game adaptation of Dennis the Menace has invincible owls and fire monsters. Mr. Wilson in level one is also invincible.
• Digimon World 3 has the Knightmon guarding Amaterasu City. To engage one in battle is effectively suicide, as you cannot win. Period. They are not even beatable via hacking.
• Donkey Kong Country
  • The original Donkey Kong Country has Stop and Go Station, a level designed entirely around invincible enemies. Rock-Crocs (Kremlings made of stone, with glowing red eyes) infest the mineshaft, pacing back and forth for all eternity. Get in their way, and you're toast. The only way to deal with them is to touch the floating barrels to get them to change from a green "GO" to a red "STOP", which causes the Rock-Crocs to fall asleep. This only lasts for a few seconds, and upon its expiry the barrels' labels are reversed and the sleeping enemies wake up again, so you must race from barrel to barrel to avoid getting hit. It's not really that difficult, but is infamous for being one of the scariest parts of the whole series. In the Japanese version, Rock-Crocs can be defeated with Donkey Kong's handslap.
  • In Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest:
    • Red Zingers can only be killed with barrels full of explosives or with the assistance of a "!" invincibility barrel. They can even survive being jumped on by a rhino. Looks rather silly when the boss version of the Zinger can be defeated by a bird that spits eggs.
    • Similarly so was the skeletal kremling phantom, Kackle, that you find in the mineshaft level of the haunted woods area. This guy is more or less invulnerable to any attack or thrown object you have (not that you could throw anything since you meet them in the middle of mine cart tracks) and will kill you if the timer above you runs out, which is easy since they chase you for portions of the time you're in the cart. The only way you can avoid being killed by them is by beating the time you get from the beginning of the phantom's chase portion (marked by a door you enter) and make it to that portion's "exit" (another door) before time runs out. If not, that phantom will automatically kill one of your Kongs.
    • The blood-red piranha-like Lockjaws. Most underwater enemies are unkillable unless you ride/are a certain animal buddy, but Lockjaws are both VERY fast and out for your blood.
  • In Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! "Fish Food Frenzy" underwater stage, a snook-like Nibbla follows you around, and it has a gimmick. It starts out blue, then as it gets hungrier, it will turn purple, pink, then red (which it then attacks you). It would stay full as long as you manipulated it to eat the clownfish in the level, and not the urchins. If it ate an urchin, it would suddenly get a level hungrier. Not that making it eat urchins is a completely bad idea, one blocks the route to a bonus stage.
• Deadly Rooms of Death:
  • Wubbas are completely immune to swords. However, they also can't harm the player. This means they just usually tend to get in the way. However, they can be destroyed using Benevolent Architecture.
  • Gentryii are not only invincible to swords, but unlike wubbas, they are just as deadly as any other monster. They are also too heavy to push into pits and immune to bombs and fire traps, making them very difficult to kill — just about the only way is collapsing a bridge under one, if there is a bridge in the room.
• Earthworm Jim had a couple, but the most remembered ones are probably the big brute No. #4 cats in the Down the Tubes level. They can't be killed by anything except plasma, and there is typically a hanging ledge above the area they patrol. You usually have to hang onto said ledge and pull your body up to avoid detection from these guys.
• Enter the Gungeon has a few — Lead/Flesh Cubes which charge at the player dealing contact damage, Dead Blow hammers which periodically spawn in and strike the floor which sends out a spread of bullets, the Gunreaper who hurls a spread of homing bullets towards the player, and the Lord of the Jammed, an apparition that appears after accruing a high enough curse level who relentlessly chases you between rooms and periodically fires bullets in all directions.
• The Escapists 2 adds in dogs. They are first released once the Security Level reaches two stars, then again once the Security Level reaches 4.^note To be more precise, two are deployed at 2 stars, 4 are deployed at 4 stars. They can track down objects and cannot be harmed.
• Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan: The Imperial airships patrol the Cloudy Stronghold as if they were FOE, yet they cannot be fought in battle (much less defeated) and have to be avoided at all costs, because getting caught by one will fully incapacitate the Global Airship and make the characters respawn in Tharsis with only 1 HP each and all food that was gathered lost. By the time the characters earn the Empire's friendship (even being able to recruit Imperial-class explorers to the party), the airships are simply gone.
• Eversion's rock monsters are completely immune to any attack at all, and only pause for a second when you hop on them. And in X-8 in the newer versions, the regular mooks can only be stopped for a short period of time before they regenerate. Not respawn, regenerate.
• Fallout: New Vegas: Dead Money has Ghost People, who can only be temporarily knocked down unless decapitated, dismembered, or consumed by Dog, and Holograms, which are entirely invincible to physical attack, although some can be hacked or have their emitter disabled.
• Forsaken plays with this trope in the Space Station level. On your way out, there's a little mouse droid roaming one of the rooms. Mo matter how much you shoot it or what you shoot it with, it will not die. The game will display a message asking you if this little critter is really that annoying that you feel the need to kill it.
• Giana Sisters DS: Piranhas, Crabs, Ghosts and Worms are completely unkillable and must be jumped over or completely avoided.
• Gift (2001): Little Clears and Darks, Guardians and Patrollers. Little Clears and Darks can be killed by light or darkness respectively, though.
• The Godfather: The Game: You may occasionally encounter mooks who you can't touch at all even though their stated rank is below what you may be routinely slaughtering by then. Fortunately they almost never show up in real combat situations.
• Gojira Kun: Hedora is the only monster that can't be killed by Godzilla's Megaton Punch, only pushed back a little.
• Grey Area (2023) has Borbos, seemingly based on the Gordos from Kirby: floating spike balls that cannot be harmed.
• Half-Life 2: The sentry turrets can only be defeated by knocking them over somehow. You can't actually kill them. They will resume their function when placed upright. The upshot is that they can't be permanently disabled when they're rewired to work for you, either.
• Hollow Knight has several undefeatable enemies that act more like stage hazards. These include the armored worm-like Goams, which emerge from and retract into floors and ceilings; Charged Lumaflies, which are sort of intangible but periodically generate a damaging electric field; Garpedes, giant burrowing creatures that crawl continually through, up and down certain passageways and have armor plating that makes them invulnerable to your attacks; and Void Tendrils, masses of tentacles and eyes that surge out of pools of Void to lash at anything that comes close. Their entries in the Monster Compendium, which are normally filled in by killing a certain number of each enemy, are filled by inspecting remains of these creatures found in the world map — a fossilized Goam is found in a hidden room in the Forgotten Crossroads, a jar of preserved Lumaflies is in the Teacher's Archives, one side room in Deepnest contains the corpse of a Garpede that was cut in half by something unspecified, and an area of the Abyss contains an imprint of Tendrils left on stone.
• Iji has "Blits", feral chunks of nanomachines that eat other nanomachines. Only one weapon in the entire game (the Null Driver) can kill them, although one log comments that it is possible to launch them into outer space and they'll eventually starve into... "whatever it is, it's not recyclable."
• Impossamole: Many of the Goddamned Bats and Demonic Spiders, including the sword guys in Orient, the swarms of ghost pirates in the Bermuda Triangle, and any underwater enemy. The Amiga/C64 version has both killable and invincible variants of many mooks, such as bats and skeletons, and they're hard to tell apart.
• Kid Icarus: The jumping and flying Pluton thieves in the original game are Bandit Mooks that deal no damage to Pit, but in return are completely unaffected by Pit's arrows. In Kid Icarus: Uprising, Plutons can be defeated, but they move so fast that it's rather hard to do so; plus they run away after a while, taking your stolen items with them. Instead, the newest Invincible Minor Minion is the Orne, which is not only invincible, but touching it is an instant death. Only the Three Sacred Treasures can kill them, and you use them only in very specific instances.
• Justice League Heroes: The Flash: Circe creates four stone warriors to attack The Flash during her boss fight. They can only be destroyed when Circe disposes of them, presumably because they haven't killed the player by that point.
• Kirby
  • Gordos are completely indestructible, even if you run into them with invincibility activated (which normally kills every other enemy in the game, including bosses). Thankfully, they just fly in set patterns or are thrown by another enemy, making them easy to avoid. Gordos could be destroyed in Kirby's Dream Land, but the method for doing so was only available in the boss rush level and is unavailable in all later games, where the boss rush is separate from levels. Kirby's Dream Land 2 featured Captain Stitch, a mini-boss with the look and properties of a Gordo, but it had to sacrifice its invincibility to actually attack.
  • Shotzo cannons are this as well. However, unlike Gordos they follow the rules of gravity, so you can drop one down a bottomless pit if it's standing on a breakable block, but that is less common than how often you can have a Gordo fly off-screen. Also, in Kirby's Dream Land, it is possible to destroy them with invincibility, but it takes some time and Kirby must stand in them.
  • Kirby: Triple Deluxe has the Tough Waddle Dee, a silver version of the Waddle Dee that is completely invincible and (mostly) immobile. However, it only shows up in the copy ability room for training purposes. It also avoids Collision Damage.
• Left 4 Dead had a glitch that would occasionally cause a random Common to become invincible. As if that wasn't bad enough, the AI teammates didn't even notice that Common anymore, and it could kill them. The only was to escape would be to shove the invincible zombie into a closet, and then run. Luckily, this glitch has been patched.
• Legend Of Makai, a fantasy platformer arcade game from Jaleco has an indestructible eye monster fly after your hero if you run out of time.
• The Legend of Tian-ding: During the boss fight against Nakamura, the villain has two regular mooks who drops sandbags on you from a high platform. You can scale the platform and attack the mooks, but they cannot be killed in any way. After you defeat Nakamura the mooks then flees.
• Little Red Hood: The bear you encounter is invincible in addition to being a One-Hit Kill.
• Littlewood: The Wompers in the Dust Caverns can only be dodged, not incapacitated. The Ultimate Upgrade for the Dust Caverns will result in them being immobile and not doing any harm if the player still bumps into them despite this.
• MediEvil 2 loves these, examples include the police officers, the vampire girls and the Mullocks.
• Metroid:
  • Metroid: The Rippers can be frozen, but not destroyed with any of your regular beams. They're only properly killable with the Screw Attack, later games adding on Shinesparking and Super Missiles.
  • Metroid II: Return of Samus: Automs cannot be destroyed, only avoided. Steptoggs, flitts and proboscum are invincible too, but they can't hurt Samus.
  • Metroid Prime: Reaper Vines and Aqua Reapers are supposed to be indestructible and can only be forced to retreat by shooting them — unless you fully charge a shot from the Plasma Beam, which will kill them outright (until you leave the room for long enough anyway).
• Miku Monogatari ~Yume to Taisetsu na Mono~: Some stages has a rolling spike ball enemy that's cannot be killed. However, they're still could be pushed back with any attacks.
• Ninja: Shadow of Darkness has green acidic Blob Monster enemies in the underground caves that cannot be harmed in any way, with the only option being jumping over them and fleeing.
• Ori and the Blind Forest has Spiny-like enemies circling some platforms in the Ginso Tree that can't be killed.
• Pathways into Darkness: Banshees are impervious to physical attacks, while the Green Oozes and "Giant Purple Hellbeasts" encountered on "Earthquake Zone" are completely invincible. The Oozes avoid you if you're poisoned.
• Parodius: Some of the panels have so many hit points, it's impossible to kill them before they leave the screen. Gokujyou Parodius takes this up to 65536 by giving us the 16-Bit Block.
• Perfect Dark Zero: The Spiderbots are invincible in the later levels, and will constantly pursue you if alerted, until their sensor is destroyed.
• Rappies of all kinds on Phantasy Star Online and Phantasy Star Online 2 can not die. After taking a certain amount of damage they will fake death and run away once a specific amount of time has passed or the player had moved a certain distance away at which they can be hit again for additional loot. (Or in the case of the former, any loot at all.) On the former this is unexplained but on the latter it's explained they are suspected to be interdimensional beings and are subject to ongoing study by ARKS scientists.
• Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time has the dinosaurs in Jurassic Marsh. None of them can be damaged or harmed at all by your plants, and they help the zombies by pushing them further into the lawn. Thankfully, you can Set a Mook to Kill a Mook by using the Perfume-Shroom, which turns the dinosaurs against the zombies.
• Prince of Persia: The skeleton in level 3. The only sure way to get rid of it is pushing it down a deep pit. The Super Nintendo port adds reviving skeletons as in Prince of Persia 2, and a crushing trap to finish off the level 3 skeleton.
• Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame: The skeletons can be defeated, but, like Dry Bones, they will get up a few seconds later. Two special enemies are completely invulnerable: the skeleton on the Rope Bridge (which falls victim to a scripted event), and the floating Flaming Sword.
• Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero?: Metal Corn, Metal Imps, Black Marionettes and Gargoyles (and their sub-variants the Flaming Gargoyle Heads) cannot be killed by any attack. They're even immune to the blast of energy released by opening a dimensional portal. (Which even kills sub-bosses immediately.) It's not a problem with the Corn, which can only jump up and down and regular Gargoyles which don't move from their positions and it's only a minor problem with the Marionettes and Flaming Heads because they only move in a set pattern (and the Marionettes can be killed by tricking them into walking off a high drop as they don't like you getting too close to them) but the imps (which can fly very quickly) will chase you until you manage to get far enough away. The only real way to deal with Imps is to stun them and then knock or throw them into a bottomless pit. Averted with Mudmen (aka Forsaken Ones) which appear to be this at first but are in fact just extremely durable.
• Purple: There is a family of rolling barrels, trashcan mooks and spikeballs in the sewers. Of them three, only barrels can be destroyed using the moon item.
• Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time: The Tetramites are invincible insect swarms that can digest anything by touch. Ratchet's weapons can't harm them, with the game explicitly calling them invincible. They are said to hate water and won't cross it, but spraying water at them with the Hydronator has no effect. Their are only two ways they can be killed; for some unexplained reason, the wrench, which is the weakest weapon in the series, can kill them even though none of the far more powerful weapons have any effect on them at all, and they will explode if you get them to touch ivy. In both cases, more will just spawn from their indestructible nests, making it pointless.
• Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc: The Knaaren are invincible, but their champion Reflux can be defeated in a boss fight, and then again later after he becomes even more powerful.
• Rise of the Triad: The ballistikraft (big robots) are completely invincible. Even the God Mode projectile attack (which can kill the Final Boss in one hit) is useless against them.
• Rygar: Whether it's your Diskarmor or the Smart Bomb rune you can pick up, nothing you have can harm Death once your timer has run out. All you can do is Run or Die and unfortunately Death moves increasingly faster as you progress in the game.
• Shantae:
  • Pinchers, who jump up out of pits in Shantae: Risky's Revenge and Shantae and the Seven Sirens. In the latter game, the Jellyfish Monster Card allows damaging it.
  • Shantae and the Seven Sirens: The unnamed spike monsters that live in the water and come in move-in-a-pattern and Stationary Enemy forms, cannot be damaged by anything, and are mainly used to necessitate precision controls.
• Shovel Knight:
  • The Mollusks are the only enemy that cannot be killed, though if they are crawling on a block when it's destroyed they will be temporarily stunned.
  • Ghosts are a half example. They cannot be killed in the Lich Yard, only stunned, but a special item allows you to kill them in the Hall of Champions.
• Snailiad has the Jellyfish and the spikeballs, though you get to take revenge when you get the Devastator.
• Mummies are this in both Data East's Spinmaster and Krobon's Pharaoh Rebirth. No matter what you do, they always put themselves together.
• Squee-Gs in the single-player campaigns of Splatoon can't be killed, only stunned momentarily. Since they also erase ink trails you make, which you probably need to get past obstacles or climb something, this trope makes them very, very annoying to deal with. At least they can't directly hurt you... that's the job of their equally invulnerable older siblings, the Industrial Squee-Gs.
• Starbound has the Erchius Ghost, which appears on moons when you try to plunder their precious resources. Cannot be killed, cannot be stopped, can float through solid objects, and will drain your health if you're too close and outright kill you if they can touch you. Their only weakness is that they're somewhat slow, so running is an option... as long as you're a fast digger.
• Starcraft II's broodlings launched by Brood Lords (no longer via Spawn Broodling). They do initial impact damage, then stay around a while chomping and clawing everything in reach, but can't be shot at or controlled.
• Garrisoning units in Stick War will summon castle archers in your base depending on the number of units garrisoned, which can't be manually controlled but are also invulnerable and will automatically whittle away at attacking enemies. In Stick War 2, Castle Archidons are instead provided by a researched upgrade, and the Chaos and Elemental empires have their own equivalents (Deads and Fire Elementals respectively). Stick War 3 uses both of these mechanics, although because there are no predefined factions, your castle defenders will always be Archidons no matter what your army composition is.
• Super Smash Bros.:
  • Super Smash Bros. Brawl: In Adventure Mode, Jyks move in a certain pattern, damage you when you touch them, and cannot be hurt. They still count as enemies, though. Since they cannot be defeated, it's also impossible to capture them, so their trophy can only be obtained by clearing the Boss Rush mode with 20 characters.
  • Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS: Smash Run mode uses Ornes from Kid Icarus: Uprising, and they are every bit as unkillable (and lethal) as before.
• Your wife in Takeshi's Challenge has infinite health, which the game (along with all its other traps and pitfalls) neglects to tell you when it offers you the option to punch her and start a fight. One wonders if this was Takeshi just screwing with the player, a case of Video Game Cruelty Punishment for deciding to hit your wife, or both.
• In Tales of Phantasia, there is one enemy in the Moria Gallery area, known as 'Urchin', that takes the form of a tiny green worm. However, the green worm is both practically indestructible and very dangerous— it's able to deliver 9999 damage to any character it touches, killing them instantly.
• Terra Cresta, in its later areas, has goddamned spiked balls that (temporarily) surround you, slow you down, and prevent you from firing.
• Terraria has a pair of enemies exclusive to the Dungeon that cannot be damaged: The Blazing Wheel, a ring of fire that runs along surfaces, and the Spike Ball, which stays in one place and spins in a circle. Because they are invincible, neither of them has a Bestiary entry, as Bestiary entries for enemies are based on kill count.
• TerraTech: The Better Future corporation has transparent, untouchable G.H.O.S.T drones appear in one mission to defend its Giga Stack facility. The drones have been taken over by a computer virus, but thankfully they deal Scratch Damage and the player can barge past them with a tough enough tech.
• Thunder Force IV had these in the lava cavern stage. Part of a larger mook, these things would break off once destroyed, and then orbit around the player character, blocking your shots. The only way to defeat it was to lure it into the walls, doing collision damage to them and eventually killing them.
• The Tower of Druaga has the Will O'Wisps, which appear if you take too long on any floor and are present from the start on some floors. Incidentally, three items counter the Will-o-the-Wisps in question, but if you miss even one of them, you won't make it past floor 59. Oh, and the second of these three items negates the effect of the first and is required for the third, which combines the effects of the first two.
• In the Macintosh game Toxic Ravine, the "super" mutants that hatch from the five randomly-scattered eggs if you bomb them (or take too long to clean out the ravine) are indestructible and can only be temporarily immobilized.
• Tyrian would make some of its later boss battles tougher by introducing a small but invincible enemy with good firepower but extremely poor targeting ability. Sounds pretty par for the course, but it ran around the bottom of the screen and shot upward, forcing you to evade fire from at least two directions.
• In Whizz, the red-and-white enemies are impossible to kill.
• Witch Hunt: Whisperers are black shadowy spirits that cannot be killed in any way and chase you down if you get too close, and if they reach you, they flash a freaky distorted red face across the screen and scream at you, taking away a small portion of your HP and all of your Mana.
• Bacura, the floating mirror panels from Xevious. It is also invincible in Tales of Symphonia except for its rare Metal Slime appearance outside the mines.
• On the higher difficulties in the 3D Ys games, in addition to the color-coded enemies, there are black enemies that are completely invincible.

Non-Videogame Examples

Tabletop Game

• One type of creature in Magic: The Gathering is characterized by being low power, low toughness, fairly cheap to play, and either hard to kill or easy to somehow return to the battlefield after being killed. Skeletons are particularly prone to this. Darksteel Mutation is another example which can be used both offensively and defensively, turning some useless creature into an unkillable blocker, or turning an enemy's most powerful monster into a harmless bug.

Web Comics

• The unnamed Odd Organ Up Top mooks in Hero Oh Hero. To defeat them, Go for the Eye. The catch? Well...

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