Newbie Immunity

"I'm glad I got you this program... if this were a real battle, you'd be dead by now. I disabled failure for this little intro, but from now on, you WILL need to be more careful."

— Savant (message that appears if the player takes lethal damage during the tutorial), Copy Kitty

It is generally expected that the beginning of a game is the easiest part, with it being highly unlikely for you to lose unless you really tried to. Some games take that a step further by making failure flat-out impossible or less penalizing. This often comes in three forms: One is by making the player invincible or unable to die no matter how much damage they take. Another is by allowing the game to continue even if the player loses or by reducing or nullifying the consequences of losing. A third way is by giving the player unlimited resources at the start. This is usually done so that the player can become accustomed to the controls and mechanics of the game without fear of losing progress, being punished for their failure, or having to replay the opening section all over again if they didn't get a chance to save their game. This is often the point of the game where the tutorial occurs. This can also happen when trying out minigames for the first time or learning new game mechanics.

Note that simply not facing any threat of failure at all at the start is not enough. It should involve a situation where it would normally be possible to lose or be penalized, which would be prevented thanks to this trope.

This is a form of Anti-Frustration Features. Compare Foregone Victory, Death Is a Slap on the Wrist, and Open-Ended Boss Battle, which can serve as a method for accomplishing this. Also compare A Taste of Power, which may let you test out late-game abilities early, and Easing into the Adventure, which is where the story starts off slower and easier. Compare/contrast Low-Level Advantage, where being at a lower level is advantageous over a higher one but isn't restricted to the early game nor does it typically provide the "immunity" to losing/penalization like this trope. See also Training Stage, which usually lets players practice controls and mechanics anytime they want without any penalty for dying or taking damage, and Antepiece, which has the player take on a simple obstacle before facing a harder version of that obstacle. See also Early Game Hell for the inverse of this trope.

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Examples:

Action Games

• Every Bayonetta game has a prologue chapter where you start out as Bayonetta fighting against a horde of enemies, or in the case of the third game, fighting against a single boss, all while a narrator talks over the scenario. It's impossible to take damage, as this section lacks a health bar, giving you the opportunity to try out whatever combos you'd like against foes for a short period of time.
• Copy Kitty: The tutorial, a.k.a. Training Mode, prevents the player character from dropping to true 0 HP, and instead the Hit Points counter flickers between 0 and 1 even though the Life Meter is empty.
• Diablo IV will allow you to refund any skills you have but for a gold cost. However, refunding skills early in the game costs nothing at all, so you can try different abilities without being locked into anything due to lack of money early on.
• The Force Unleashed: The prologue has you play as Darth Vader, who marches unstoppably through the level, cutting down anything that gets in his way while the various game mechanics are introduced.
• The Legend of Korra: The game opens with Korra fighting against a horde of spirits in the Spirit World. During the fight, she takes no damage, and she switches between fighting with the four types of bending.

Action-Adventure Games

• The Hobbit (2003): At the beginning of the game, you control Bilbo Baggins in a dream sequence where you fight against orcs and goblins, and you are invincible against all attacks.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: To pull the Master Sword free of its pedestal, Link needs to have a certain number of permanent hearts. The first time Link attempts to pull out the Master Sword if he does not have enough permanent health, the Great Deku Tree will abruptly stop him when he hits 1/4 of a heart of health and restore him back to full but will warn him that he will not stop a second time. Sure enough, if the player tries again with less than required, he will get a Non-Standard Game Over.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: In the opening prologue beneath Hyrule Castle, the Master Sword is unbreakable, unlike the rest of the game where it is subject to a cooldown when it runs out of durability.
• Outer Wilds: The central gimmick is that you're stuck in a 22-minute time loop that ends with the Sun going supernova, killing everything in the solar system. But as a bit of helpful Gameplay and Story Segregation, the countdown for the first time loop doesn't start until you mentally link with the Nomai statue (the in-story explanation for why you're time looping instead of dying). So you can take as long as you'd like on the tutorial planet, getting a handle on the basic controls and physics, without a sudden supernova interrupting you out of nowhere.
• The first level of The Simpsons Game has no health meter, so Homer can't take damage from enemies. He also doesn't have a stamina meter, so you can spam his ball abilities as much as you want until the level ends.
• The original Spy Hunter gives you unlimited replacement cars while the initial timer is still counting down.

Beat Em' Up

• Speed Brawl starts with a prologue, which lacks a health bar and where the main character is claimed in the lead-in to be invincible. After this, the player is put into a tutorial but can take damage.

First-Person Shooters

• Prey (2006): Inverted Trope. After around the 4th level, the player is revived after battling wraiths in the Spirit World for a limited amount of time instead of a Game Over, so the player's immunity to loss starts after a certain point, instead of before.
• Unreal series:
  • The tutorials in Unreal Tournament disallow you from dying. You may still lose the team-based matches, but you won't be locked out of the respective Ladder, as the first proper match and the tutorial are unlocked as soon as you unlock a Ladder.
  • In the 1-on-1 section of the Unreal II: The Awakening tutorial, Raff plays against you by using a hologram version of himself. It doesn't matter if you win or lose a match, as you can exit the arena through the door, and nothing happens.
  • The first chapter of Unreal Tournament III has you fighting a 1-on-1 match against your sister. Regardless of the result, you instantly start Chapter 2 after finishing that match.

Hack and Slash

• Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes: The Fire Emblem series is known for its permadeath; this game allows the player to choose whether to enable it, but it is always disabled during the first chapter.

Life Simulation Games

• Stardew Valley: In the Fishing Mini Game, you play a sort of tug-of-war game where you have to keep on target to build a progression meter - when it fills, you catch the fish, but if it runs out, the fish escapes. However, the first fish you find will never escape, even if the progression meter reaches zero, giving you as much time as you need to get the hang of the controls and capture it.

Metroidvania

• Castlevania: Symphony of the Night: The opening of the game has Richter face off against Dracula. Even if Richter loses all his health during the fight, he'll just be revived by Maria and be made invincible, but if you manage to win the battle without dying or taking damage, then Alucard will have higher stat bonuses when you switch over to him.

MMORPG

• City of Heroes: Player characters that are under level 10 won't suffer Experience Debt, which slows their ability to level up after getting defeated in battle. Thus, players using new characters won't have to worry much about getting defeated until they hit level 10.
• Final Fantasy XIV: If your character is at level 10 or lower, repairing your gear is free, which is perfect for new players who probably don't have much money to begin with.
• In World of Warcraft, resurrecting at a Spirit Healer, as opposed to finding and recovering your corpse, normally incurs Resurrection Sickness, which significantly reduces your health and damage and basically makes you useless in combat for 10 minutes. However, players under level 10 can resurrect at a Spirit Healer with no penalty, and up to level 20 Resurrection Sickness has reduced duration.

Platform Games

• Shantae: Half-Genie Hero:
  • In the first level of the game, Shantae has no Life Meter, so she can't be damaged or get a Game Over.
  • "Friends To The End" mode also has no Life Meter in its tutorial section.
• Spongebob Squarepants Battle For Bikini Bottom: The tutorial in Spongebob's Pineapple showing how health works will automatically drop a safe on our hero for one point of damage. This tutorial can be revisited at any point in the game, and won't kill you even if you're down to your last point.
• Wife Quest: You are generally expected to lose the first fight against Morganna at the end of the first stage, the Grasslands, unless you have excellent dodging skills or are playing in Magic Mode, as you will earn an achievement if you lose and the game continues as normal.
• Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair gives a Beetallion shield during the prologue, so that the duo can get through the heavy wave of enemies. It's then taken over by the hive mind and stolen before the first boss battle (which has an attack pattern difficult for new players.)

Real-Time Strategy

• Pikmin: All mainline games in the series give the player unlimited time in the first day to complete an objective (get the Main Engine, reunite Olimar and Louie and get the Courage Reactor, get Alph back to the S.S. Drake, and power up the S.S. Shepherd respectively). Because of the level design, it is also impossible for Pikmin to die on the first day without glitches. Even the Dwarf Bulborb at the start of Pikmin 2, normally an enemy that eats Pikmin, is coded to be harmless on the first day.
• In Puzzles & Survival, new players are given three-day shields that prevent them from being attacked by other players.

Roguelikes

• Critadel: Losing to the tutorial boss is expected and is how the rest of the game is unlocked, but you get a Developer's Foresight reward if you win.
• Cult of the Lamb: During the first combat when the Lamb is escaping from their captors, the Lamb doesn't have the three hearts that represent their health throughout the rest of the game and won't take any damage no matter how many times they get hit. Additionally, the cult's hygiene and faith are locked at max until after the first crusade has been successfully completed.
• Elona: When the player reaches Level 6, the game stops taking it easy on you. You'll start getting taxed, and you'll receive the full penalty of reviving after death. Elona Plus raises the starting point to Level 10.

Role-Playing Games

• When gameplay first begins in Dragon Age II, Hawke is massively overpowered, able to tear through the oncoming waves of enemies with barely a second thought, and cannot die no matter how much damage they take. This gives the player some understanding of how to control the character and a couple of the special abilities Hawke will have due to their chosen class. This only lasts for the first few minutes of gameplay, however, after which the view flips back to the Framing Device and the player learns that Varric is overselling Hawke's awesomeness to his interrogator.
• In Dragon Quest XI, the Luminary cannot die in the beginning during the trek through Cobblestone Tor as Gemma will keep using Medicinal Herbs on him if his health gets low.
• The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind: After creating your character, until you are released from custody by the Imperial Captain, you will not be charged with any crimes. The guards will chastise you for stealing and confiscate any stolen goods in your inventory, but if you set them down on the ground first, they'll be yours for the taking after exiting dialogue with the guard. Taking advantage of this, you can steal everything not nailed down in the Census and Excise Office, more than enough to clean out the only trader in town.
• Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass: Losing to the first enemy doesn't lead to a Game Over like it would in later battles.
• Kingdom Hearts:
  • In Kingdom Hearts, Sora's first two (and a half) boss fights will not result in a Game Over should he lose. If Sora loses to Darkside in Dive to the Heart or at Destiny Islands, the game continues as normal. If he wins, he gets the extra experience, but nothing else. For that additional half, however, if he defeats Leon, he does get an item later on but is simply knocked unconscious without the extra XP if he loses. Once Sora enters the boss fight against Guard Armor, however, all bets are off.
  • In Kingdom Hearts II, the first fight is against Seifer. No matter whether Roxas wins or loses the fight, the game will continue on with the winner's friend taking their photograph, which then gets stolen by a Nobody.
• Final Fantasy VII: The game doesn't provide Newbie Immunity at the beginning but is a Double Subversion when Cloud is recalling a past memory from when he was first starting out as a SOLDIER and fought alongside Sephiroth. Cloud is locked at level 1 and Sephiroth is a level 50 NPC ally who will one-shot any random encounters, and in case Cloud is knocked out, Sephiroth will revive him first.
• Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga: The first fight is against Bowser. It's impossible to lose the fight against him, even if you get hit by every attack or mistime every jump, as the game is programmed for you to win the battle within a set number of turns.
• The Other: Airi's Adventure: The first enemies are Knight(?)-s who don't attack since their goal is to retrieve their targets alive.
• Persona 5: In the opening section, Joker is in the process of escaping a casino until he comes across a Shadow that turns into a Moloch. Even though he can take damage during this section, it's impossible for his HP to reach zero as the Moloch will simply stop attacking after a certain point. The Royal version adds a second battle where you fight Shadows alongside Kasumi which is also impossible to lose.
• Pokémon: A general rule of thumb for the games is that while the first battle can be lost, instead of whiting out and losing money like what normally happens after losing a battle, the plot will continue on as normal, with the exception of the first generation.
• Ruphand: An Apothecary's Adventure: Losing while trapped in the starting dungeon sends Brill back to where she entered it, with all her Starter Equipment and Hit Points restored if she dropped below their starting amounts, preserving all her unused crafted weapons.
• Secret of Mana
  • Dying at any point before reaching the first town will revive, then teleport you back to where the sword was drawn from the stone.
  • Dying to the first boss (Mantis Ant) will result in Gemma reviving you as many times as necessary.
• Titan Quest: Dying at Character Level 1 doesn't lead to any loss of Experience Points, unlike at higher levels.
• Transistor: If you manage to overload the Transistor in the first few battles prior to the first access point, you won't lose any functions from doing so. This is especially important in New Game Plus, as a loadout optimized to beat the final boss is often impractical when dealing with greater numbers of weaker Processes.
• Undertale: Zig-Zagged. For casual players, when you reach a certain HP, it is impossible to lose to Toriel in her boss battle, the flames that fall from the top of the battle box completely avoid your soul heart. However, there is a point before that where you can intentionally move your soul heart towards the flames that land upon the ground, causing your HP to drop past that trigger, and eventually shatter the soul. As an easter egg, for a split second, Toriel gasps in shock before the screen goes dark and your soul shatters.

Shoot Em' Ups

• Hitogata Happa: The first level gives you infinite dolls, which are equivalent to lives.

Survival Horror

• Dead Rising:
  • In Dead Rising, if Frank loses all his health when the zombies first break into the Willamette mall, he will wake up in the security room instead of dying, having been rescued by Otis.
  • In Dead Rising 2, if Chuck loses all his health while attempting to carry Katie to the safehouse during the zombie outbreak in the opening section, Chuck will wake up safe and sound with Katie at the safehouse.
• Silent Hill 3: The game starts with a Nightmare Sequence where Heather is trapped in an amusement park full of monsters. You can attempt to fight your way through this section, but if Heather dies at any point, she'll just wake up from the nightmare.

Third-Person Shooters

• Splatoon 3: To start an Anarchy Battle series, you normally have to pay an amount of Rank Points that scales based on your current Anarchy Battle rank; how many points you get back after completing the series depends on your performance. However, at the game's lowest rank of C-, which is the player's starting rank unless they imported data from Splatoon 2, the entry fee is free, meaning there's no penalty at all for losing the series.

Wide-Open Sandbox

• Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas: The game begins when Officer Tenpenny drops CJ off at a Ballas neighborhood after framing evidence against CJ for the murder of a police officer to hold as leverage against him. However, the Ballas won't attack CJ, and the player can kill police without getting a wanted level during the mission.
• Roblox: In the Blox Fruit game, level 1 "noobs" are immune to level 2450 masters until they reach level 20.

Non-Gaming Examples:

Literature

• In the LitRPG novel, Early Access Apocalypse, a "Beginner's Protection" effect is revealed later, at the end of Chapter 8, after the first quest is completed. It kept Jake from dying after losing all his Hit Points.
• The Hero Laughs While Walking the Path of Vengeance a Second Time: Kaito is summoned to a JRPG-style world and manages to defeat the Demon Lord, only to be betrayed and killed by his companions, but because he was in "Tutorial Mode," instead of dying, he is sent back 4 years to when he was first summoned to the world.
• In the LitRPG, The Many Lives Of Cadance Lee, the titular reincarnator has "Beginner's Protection" for her first 4 lives, keeping her from facing consequences from dying without performing any significant actions.
• In the LitRPG novels Monroe and Ar Kendrithyst, there is a "Child's Protection" effect that protects children from getting hurt.

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