Shockwave Stomp

BOOM, baby!

An attack typically used by heavy characters in video games, the Shockwave Stomp is where a character smashes the ground hard enough to send out a wave of energy that causes damage to their enemies.

While often the side effect of the Ground Pound it can be done in various ways, using your fists, or striking the ground with a hammer (or any other weapon for that matter), stomping or just by concentrating really hard. The attack is most likely to be seen as a coloured wave but sometimes you'll see the ground itself bubble over like somebody flipping a carpet.

The goal of the slam effect is usually to create distance between you and the opponent or to follow up with an attack which requires a charge-up time to perform while you are knocked down/back, or used by a Mighty Glacier to counter a Fragile Speedster, or to catch a speedster in general. The nastier video games can have the shockwave instantly kill you for failing to see it coming and moving out of the way.

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Examples:

Action Adventure

• A Hat in Time: Mafia Boss likes to send out long bursts of electricity along the ground, in what he describes as "Super Charge!" or "Mega Charge!"
• ANNO: Mutationem: In the battle against the MI Mecha, one of its attacks consists of punching the ground with such strong force, the resulting blast creates a powerful shockwave that stretches out across the fighting area to deliver a knockback strike unless evaded.
• Beyond Good & Evil: This is the first part of the team attack — your partner creates a shockwave, sending all ground-bound enemies into the air. (The second half involves you attacking them, which allows you to throw them into the wall/an arc of electricity/another enemy/a bridge that needs knocked down/materia crystals.)
• Brütal Legend: This is one of the first attacks gained by Eddie Riggs, and the attack/knockback radius and damage can be increased by switching to the Super Shakers for Clementine. Eddie's first real combo, it is done by using Clementine and the Separator (A and X, respectively) simultaneously.
• Hollow Knight: This sort of attack is associated mainly with bosses, although it is also performed by the Husk Guard, a very early Giant Mook. The shockwaves have considerable height and must be jumped over to avoid taking damage; some Superbosses use even more powerful versions.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: In the video game based on the fifth arc, Diavolo's Stand King Crimson creates shockwaves by punching the ground. As the video shows, you must use your own Stand to block them.
• The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon: A variant. During the second and third phases of its fight, the golem fights by punching the building Spyro and Cynder are standing on. Each blow releases a spherical shockwave, which will harm the dragons regardless of whether it catches them on the ground or in the air.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past: Ganon uses this to shake the room and break the floor in the fight with him.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening: The Armos Knight will periodically jump into the air and land with great force, stunning Link on impact unless he uses the Roc's Feather to jump into the air right as it lands.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: Ganondorf can do this with his fist. Aside from inflicting damage, it causes parts of the floor to collapse.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons: After being reduced to a skeleton, Gleeok fights by jumping up into the air and landing forcefully on the ground, shaking the room and causing Link to become stunned unless he uses the Roc's Cape to jump up before Gleeok lands.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass: Eox's downward punches are strong enough to unleash a dusty shockwave once the punch hits the floor.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword: The Imprisoned is so big and powerful that it does this simply by walking casually.
• Pokémon Rumble: Boss Pokémon use a weak one to push you away in an attempt to keep you from attacking them for a prolonged period of time, though an ability exists that makes you immune to knockbacks.
• In Shrek the Third, Shrek's first tier ability has him slam his arms into the ground for a light-green shockwave attack.
• Yooka-Laylee has several bosses send out waves of energy when their atmtacks hit the floor. Taken to the extreme in the later sections of the final boss where you must dodge four waves of energy at the same time.

Action Game

• An unlockable gadget in Batman: Arkham City stores the kinetic energy when you dive-bomb into the ground to be released as a shockwave.
• Bayonetta 2: Rodin often attacks by creating a large wave from stomping on the ground. In the game's main story, he does this against groups of demons attacking him and Bayonetta, and each stomp is capable of killing all the demons instantly. He also uses that attack when he's fought as a Superboss, but thankfully it's not an instant-kill there.
• All of the bosses in Castlevania: Lords of Shadow seem to have this attack. Some harder more common enemies also occasionally like to do this too. This game really to do this to counter-attack spamming of the dodge-roll.
• In The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, one level has AI-controlled Gandalf assisting your chosen character. Sending out ghostly-white shockwaves is his most useful ability there.
• Mendel Palace: The sumo dolls do this as a Counter-Attack.
• Marvel Heroes: One of the more useful abilities for several characters, including Colossus, the Thing, and the Hulk. The latter gets an entire power tree filled with these.
• Ultimate Spider-Man (2005): Rhino does this.

Action RPG

• Spectrobes: In all three games, Spikan has an attack where it creates shockwaves by slamming its tail on the ground.

Beat Em Up

• Any sufficiently sized enemy can use this in The Dishwasher, either by jumping a story or two into air or just putting their very large foot down. These shockwaves, rather than looking like the standard effect, look like sparks, which might explain why they can hit you while you're off the ground.
• The three melee characters of Dragon's Crown have the Power Smash attack, where they smash their weapon into the ground for a damaging area attack, at the cost of temporarily losing their weapon since it's now embedded into the floor. The Amazon and Fighter also has the option of adding a shockwave effect to their Ground Pounds by taking the Stun Wave or Judgement skill respectively.
• In Oni, this is one of Barabbas' most annoying attacks, because the ground shockwave can't be dodged by jumping over it.

Driving Game

• In ONRUSH, the Outlaw's passive ability, Slam, destabilizes nearby foes when landing from a great height.
• John Torque in Vigilante 8 does it with a large speaker in the boot of his car that creates a circular wave in the ground and invokes physics to flip cars into the air. It's a bit hard to use because if you're moving at any decent speed you overtake your own wave and get smashed up worse than your opponents.

Fighting Game

• Potemkin's Slide Head in Guilty Gear. No fancy ground pounding here: he just stands rigidly and tips over face-first.
• Both Goro Daimon, and later, Chang Koehan of The King of Fighters are capable of this. Goro smashes the ground with a two-handed slap, while Chang stomps with a single foot. Interestingly, the move where Chang smashes his Iron Ball on the ground generally do not generate shockwaves(they still hurt, obviously).
• Satsuki in Melty Blood. Of particular note that her attack looks & sounds like she's having a tantrum and is pounding the ground.
• The Big Daddy in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale has a Down+Triangle move in which is smashes its drill into the ground several times, stunning anyone within its surprisingly large range before sending any caught victims flying. This is derived from the Bouncer's namesake attack in which it knocks targets off balance this way in the first BioShock.
• Night Terror in Soul Calibur 3 does this when stabbing the ground. Several other characters' moves use tremors to stun the opponent as well.
• In Super Smash Bros., Donkey Kong can clap against the ground, hitting nearby enemies. Yoshi and Bowser can do this with a Ground Pound attack, though the damage caused by the shockwave is a lot weaker then a direct hit.
• Jinpachi in Tekken 5 has a variety of this, which stuns you regardless of whether you're on the ground. Tengu in Dead or Alive 2 has a similar move.
• Them's Fightin' Herds: This is Arizona's special move in story mode's overworld, where she can reveal secrets or stun enemies. She also has a few earthquake-generating stomps of various levels as part of her moveset.

First Person Shooter

• Sledge in Borderlands, with his weapon. His shotgun is also the only weapon in the game with bonus knockback on it, making him an example of the "creating distance" type (odd since he is a close range fighter). Boss-level skags and spiderants can pull off shockwave stomps as well, e.g. Dukino's Mom and Scorch in the sequel.
• In Destiny 2 it's rare to see any major, ultra, or boss that doesn't have some form of shockwave stomp - whether it's the radial shockwave of Fallen Walkers, a simple stomp from a Cabal Colossi, or similar. Mostly this serves to repel anyone trying to get in close with a sword or shotgun, and doesn't do too much damage by itself — but it can easily kill by flinging you into a wall (for massive impact damage) or a Bottomless Pit.
• In Evolve, the Goliath can do this with the Leap Smash ability. One of the assault characters, Lennox, manages to turn this around on it through the use of a jetpack and a plasma cutter.
• In Halo, the Mantis mech (introduced in Halo 4) can do this, which is capable of blowing away an intact Scorpion tank in one blow at close range.
• Half-Life:
  • The Gargantulas can do this. It moves in a linear fashion and is stopped by walls.
  • Houndeye's attack using a high-pitch scream that travels along the ground in a series of these; oddly this noise attack can be dodged by jumping.
• In the Light Side ending of Jedi Academy, Tavion does this, although she hits the ground with the Staff of Ragnos.
• Metroid Prime Trilogy:
  • In Metroid Prime, Elite Pirates and the Omega Pirate have an attack that releases shockwaves Samus must jump over. Meta Ridley also has a similar ability, where he jumps up and generates a shockwave. And Metroid Prime produces flame waves that function the same way.
  • Ingsmashers in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes also do this (not surprising as they're essentially Elite Pirates with a new skin). So does Quadraxis.
  • Several bosses in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption also do this: Berserker Lord, Mogenar, Defense Drone, Dark Samus.
• Reinhardt's ultimate ability in Overwatch creates a shockwave by slamming the ground with his giant hammer, knocking down and stunning all enemies in front of him.
• Primal Carnage: The Tupandactylus and Acrocanthosaurus both have this as their secondary attacks, the former being an aerial dive-bomb. Both function as a highly effective Herd-Hitting Attack, as it does huge damage and knock-back to groups of humans bunched close together, especially the Acrocanthosaurus' stomp, which is a One-Hit Kill to anyone close.
• The final boss of Return to Castle Wolfenstein is armed only with a BFS. Well... no good against the hero, who is basically a walking WWII firearms store at the moment. So the villain periodically slams his sword into the ground, causing a small earthquake that sends PC flying towards him (immediately followed by a terrifying slash) and makes stones rain from above. This qiute dangerous attack can be countered by a well-timed jump, which either negates its effect or, vice versa, makes you leap over the boss.
• The Berserker's lightning ground stab in Quake IV.
• In Turok 2, some of the Purr-Lin can do this.
• ULTRAKILL has a few enemies that can stomp, causing a damaging shockwave: Cerberus, Hideous Mass, and Sisyphean Insurrectionist. The Prime Souls have extra-dangerous versions of these that come suddenly and hit very hard. Both Souls also have dangerous aerial movesets, so dodging it puts you at great risk of catching a projectile, getting uppercutted into a wall or just eat a combo worthy of Street Fighter.

Hack And Slash

• Diablo II: Barbarian has Leap and Leap Attack, both create a small shockwave that momentarily stuns enemies in a radius around the point of landing. In Diablo III, Barbarian regains these abilities.
• "Earthquake", one of the best special powers in Ninety-Nine Nights II, does this spending out multiple shock-waves in all directions.
• Transistor: Tap() has Red emanate a circular field out from her position when the Transistor stabs into the ground.
• In X-Men Legends, the Blob does a Shockwave Sit.

MMORPG

• Both City of Heroes and Champions Online have this as a staple of super strong characters. The former lets its players represent it with a Shockwave Slam, the latter may be charged up to a Ground Pound.
• Final Fantasy XIV:
  • Titan offers three attacks: "Stomp" where he stomps his foot repeatedly doing damage to everyone for each stomp; "Jump" where he leaps into the air and crashes down in the center of the circular arena, the closer you are to him the more damage you take (directly under is almost certain death) and each use shrinks the arena; and "Landslide" a Ground Pound punch which sends out linear shockwaves in 1, 3, or 5 (which has only tiny pockets of safety on an ever shrinking arena) directions depending on difficulty, move your ass or you take heavy damage and get launched off the arena instantly killing you and removing you from the fight.
  • Played straight with the Sawtooth/Irminsul boss in the Void Ark raid. Sawtooth uses an attack with this very name, and it's a One-Hit Kill for any player who doesn't hide behind Irminsul when it goes off.
• Guild Wars 2: The elementalist skills Churning Earth and Earthquake, the Warrior skill Stomp and the Holosmith skill Holographic Shockwave.
• Phantasy Star Online's Dragon type boss does this. And in Phantasy Star Online 2, Wolgahda and Falz Hunar both use this (via a sumo stomp and a fist slam respectively) and simply jumping won't protect you from either. Both also stun you if they connect, which frequently leads to more abuse.
• World of Warcraft:
  • Multiple bosses have an ability like this. Usually melee classes have to run out of range when the boss starts casting it. Sometimes the shockwave deals no damage but instead interrupts spellcasting of targets hit by it.
  • Also the Tauren racial Warstomp, albeit only in a small radius and it doesn't deal damage by itself.
  • Protection Warriors get this spell as their final ability. A cone shaped wave that stuns and damages enemies in front of the warrior. Also, all warriors get Thunder Clap, which is a stomp that damages the mobs/players around them.
  • Paladins get Hammer of the Righteous, which is implied to be this, except they're slamming it right ontop of an enemy, so they're the epicenter of the attack.

Multiplayer Online Battle Arena

• Awesomenauts has Skølldir, who ground pounds with his bottom. Froggy G can also buy an upgrade that lets him ground pound with his water dash.
• Multiple heroes in Dota 2 have this ability:
  • Centaur Warrunner has the ability Hoof Stomp, where he stomps the ground to damage and stun nearby enemy units.
  • Elder Titan has Echo Stomp, where he and his Astral Spirit stomp the ground to deal physical and magical damage to all nearby units, as well as knock them into unconciousness.
  • Slardar has Slithereen Crush, where he slams the ground to damage and stun enemy units, as well as slow them after the stun wears off.
  • Brewmaster has Thunder Clap, where he slams the ground to damage and slow enemy units.
  • Ursa has Earthshock, where he slams the ground to damage and slow enemy units.
  • The Centaur Conqueror creep also has War Stomp which is a weaker version of above Hoof Stomp.
  • Earthshaker played this trope Straight. where his ultimate and third skill can stun an enemy in a wide area. with Aghanim's Scepter. his second skill can jump him and stuns an enemy.
• Smite has a few gods with this ability:
  • Bacchus has Belly Flop, where he does a literal belly flop onto the ground to damage and knocks enemies into the air.
  • Fenrir has Unchained, where he leaps forward and damages enemy units, as well as stunning them when he has full runes.
  • Thor has Anvil of Dawn, where he jumps into the sky, selects an area to land, and when he lands, deals damage and stuns all enemies in the radius of the shockwave.
• Several characters in Heroes of the Storm have this as well:
  • Muradin has Thunder Clap, which allows him to slam his weapons into the ground to deal damage, as well as slow enemy movement and attack speed.
  • Garrosh has Groundbreaker, where he slams the ground with his axe to cause damage in a cone area, and stunning enemies on the very far edge.
  • The Butcher and Stitches have Hamstring and Slam, respectively. Both involve the user slamming a meat cleaver into the ground. Butcher's Hamstring hits a short line and also slows targets, while Stitches' Slam hits a wide cone but doesn't slow (though it can be upgraded to).
  • Sonya's Seismic Slam is an odd one: She slams the ground with her swords, causing a short line shockwave. However, she must target an enemy unit or structure with the attack. One of her Heroic abilities, Leap, has her leap to an area, dealing damage and stunning enemies hit.
  • E.T.C. has Stage Dive that allows him to leap to a location from anywhere on the battleground, slamming down a few seconds later to deal damage and slow enemies in a wide radius.
  • Johanna has Falling Sword. She jumps into the air and slams down to deal damage and stun enemies hit. While in midair, the player can direct where she'll land.
  • Cho'gall's Upheaval has Cho strike the ground so hard with his fist that enemies in a long cone are damaged and dragged towards the duo.
  • Both of Thrall's Heroic abilities work by having him slam the Doomhammer into the ground: Earthquake causes a heavy slow and slight damage to enemies in a large radius, which pulses every few seconds to reapply its effect. Sundering splits a long line across the ground, damaging and stunning enemies hit, as well as knocking them away from center of the line.
  • Several neutral bosses have a slam attack that deals a lot of damage and stuns everyone unfortunate enough to get caught in it.

Platform Game

• In Broforce, Bronan the Brobarian (an Expy of Conan the Barbarian, of course), does this as his special attack or when his primary attack is fully charged.
• The boss Buga the Knut in Conker's Bad Fur Day has this ability (coming along with the unique effect of spreading a wave that bypasses the hard texture of the floor without actually breaking it), and performs it when Conker and the dinosaur he rides are far from him (when they're close, he'll try to attack them with the large bone in his hand instead).
• Donkey Kong:
  • Donkey Kong 64: Army Dillo (only in the Crystal Caves rematch), Dogadon (only in the Fungi Forest rematch), Puftoss and King K. Rool all have this in their arsenal of attacks (the waves' respective colors are green, red, blue and again green); the Kasplats have shockwaves color-coded to whose blueprint piece they guard; even the Kongs themselves can do it (without the jumping part) once you've learned how.
  • Donkey Kong Country Returns: There are bosses that will dive on the ground and send a fast (but colourful) shock-wave towards you. These bosses are, namely: Mugly, Thugly, and Tiki Tong.
• In some Kirby games, the Stone ability also sends out damaging stars or smoke puffs upon landing. And in Kirby Super Star, the Wing ability comes with the Bomber Heading technique, which involves Kirby (or Birdon, its associated helper) flipping around in the air and slamming his head into the ground, sending out shockwaves that do damage. Finally, King Dedede frequently can send out damaging stars after a large leap in the same fashion as the Stone ability - in fact, this is one of the two sources of projectiles Kirby has during the final battle of Kirby's Dream Land.
• In Iconoclasts, One Concern's forces "signature attack" is a shockwave of blue energy running along the ground at a considerable height, and often in both directions. Its users include Defenders, Silver Watchman, Mother and even the Isi toolboxes that were taken over by the Controllers. Bastion Elites create a fiery-red, but otherwise similar attack when their bomb projectiles explode.
• In Iji, the final boss does this all the time, but one is deadlier than the others, putting Iji in range for his One-Hit Kill Wave-Motion Gun.
• Pac-Man has this in Pac-Man World 3 in which every third bounce creates one of these.
• In Psychonauts, this is one of Kochamura's skills: The "HARD TO AVOOOOID... AREA ATTACK!" So, instead of avoiding it, which really is hard, you can just block it with your recently-found Shield power. This is also one of Raz's basic attacks.
• In Ratchet & Clank, pounding Ratchet's wrench into the ground will set off shockwaves that can break nearby boxes. In Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time, it's also capable of igniting any oil that's on the ground nearby.
• In Scaler, the Dragon War-Beasts punch the ground to create knockback shockwaves.
• Murray's 'Thunderflop' in the later Sly Cooper games starts off as just a simple belly-flop Ground Pound. An upgrade later on in the games allows him to add a ring of fire on landing.
• Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • Egg Walker in Sonic Adventure did this.
  • Egg Libra from Sonic Rush, along with Ghost Pendulum and Capt. Whisker throughout Sonic Rush Adventure.
  • Dark Titans in Sonic Unleashed do this too.
  • Sonic Lost World has massive caterpillar enemies in one zone that create multiple waves every time they slam their heads into the ground to start to dig.
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • Roy and Ludwig shake the screen when they jump in Super Mario Bros. 3.
  • Bowser in Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Galaxy (though in the former he only stomps once at a time while in the latter he makes multiple small stomps). In Super Mario Galaxy 2, the shockwaves come when he punches the battle arena with his fists.
  • Two of the Koopalings do this in Super Mario World. Yoshi can do a miniature version of this if he's a yellow shell or is yellow and has any shell. Mario himself can also do this with a cape feather, by diving into the ground after gliding with it.
  • Baby Bowser can do this in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. Yoshi can do the same with his own Ground Pound and it's the only way to actually do any damage to Baby Bowser.
  • It's possible for the players to do this in New Super Mario Bros. Wii multiplayer. If two or more players ground pound at the same time, it sends out a shockwave that kills everything on-screen. Also in the game, Morton and Roy attack with stomps (the former manages to lift a part of the arena this way).
  • Bowser Jr. can perform this attack in Super Mario Maker, strong enough to stun Mario if he's touching the floor. Bowser can too, but only in the Super Mario Bros. 3 style. Morton Koopa Jr. does it in Super Mario Maker 2, and the stun effect is doubly dangerous in this case because the stomp also unleashes two fireballs that move through the floor, potentially harming a still-stunned Mario.
  • Mario Party 3: The minigame Tidal Toss takes place in a moat located in a summit. One of the characters is in a rowboat, while the other three are swimming in the moat. The solo player's objective is to jump onto the rowboat to create waves that push away the other three players into the moat's borders, making them fall down; if the solo player performs a Ground Pound, they'll create a much taller tidal wave that is harder to dodge for the swimming characters. If the solo player manages to knock all three swimming characters, they win; but if at least one of the swimmers survives during 30 seconds, then the trio wins.
  • Mario Party 4: The minigame Makin' Waves is a role-reversed version of Tidal Toss from Mario Party 3. The players are in a round swimming pool, and three of them have to Ground Pound their floats to create tidal waves in an attempt to make the solo player fall out of balance from their platform. If the three players succeed in their objective they'll win; but if 30 seconds pass and the solo player resists, then they win instead.
  • In Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, Queen Bean will send out three in quick succession. Later in the game, the Koopalings can also do this in their battles.
  • The animation for the 'Earth Tremor' Star attack in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door shows it using this.
  • The Shake King in Wario Land: Shake It! can do this, either through a literal stomp, or through simply punching the ground hard enough.
• Multiple examples in Unworthy:
  • Narcoss, the Anvil first simply tries to strike you with his hammer. (He does it hard enough for the chains on the ceiling to shake and rattle even when he misses.) His hammer soon gets charged, and then he begins intentionally striking the ground to cause an electric shockwave, which has limited range at first, but is eventually capable of sweeping most of the screen. Once you defeat him and pick up his hammer, you can do the same.
  • Frayed Knight Dominic's second form can create shockwaves of Filth running in both directions. If they connect, the player is "cursed", and cannot heal until the effect fades.
  • The first boss, Sveht, Devourer of Light gets a unique example. Once his health gets low enough, he somehow causes a pair of grasping, locking-and-unlocking hands to emerge from the earth and quickly travel towards you. (To be fair, you are fighting on a graveyard.) That is in addition to simply procuring a fistful of flame and slamming it into the ground, which is an attack he gets earlier.
  • Frozen Giant can create two different shockwaves of ice. Fathers produce a shockwave of Soulflame.

Real Time Strategy

• The Thumper in Battle Zone 1998 creates a shockwave radiating forwards from the player's tank. The Thumper distorts terrain as it passes through it, and tosses vehicles spinning into the air, leaving them vulnerable to incoming fire. The manual notes that nobody is sure how it works exactly, considering that only the Hover Tanks can mount it, though the NSDF scientists theorize that it channels the ship's ammo reserves into a beam of energy into the ground.
• Dawn of War 2 has a few examples, most notably the Ork Warboss (who stomps the ground real hard like) and the Space Marine Dreadnaught (who slams its mighty fist into the ground). The first game had the ork squiggoth, which has an attack animation where it rears up on its hind legs and slams down, sending units flying.
• The Warcraft III Shockwave spell goes in a straight line, but otherwise fits the requirements for this trope. Also Thunder clap (slows enemies all around) and War Stomp (stuns enemies all around).

Rhythm Game

• KickBeat does this as one of its two powerups, instantly killing every enemy close enough to have their colour coding visible.

Role Playing Game

• .hack//G.U.: Phase bosses from the first four games cast an area of effect spell by slamming into the ground. First Phase does this with his staff; the others don't need it, and the last one can do it three times in a row.
• Battle For Wayland Keep: One of the hero's abilities is to create a shockwave that pushes back and damages enemies.
• Deus Ex: Human Revolution: Adam Jensen can pull this off when falling from great heights with the Icarus Landing System.
• The Elder Scrolls:
  • This is a common ability of Frost Atronachs, which stuns nearby enemies. Atronachs are a type of unaligned lesser Daedra which are essentially the Elemental Embodiments of the elements they represent.
  • Lurkers are a fish-like species of lesser Daedra in service to Hermaeus Mora, the Daedric Prince of Knowledge, who they serve as Giant Mooks. Lurkers stand much taller than even the tallest of the playable races and can deal powerful physical strikes with their limbs. They have a "stomp" attack which damages and staggers nearby enemies, as well as summons tentacles from the ground which deal additional damage.
• Fallout 4: Landing from high drops in Power Armor causes this, and its radius can be increased with the Explosive Vent leg mod.
• Mass Effect 3: The Vanguard's "Nova" power creates this with a slam of the fist. Their sprinting heavy melee attack does something similar, with less power, but also fewer dangers. Lastly, the heavy melee of the multiplayer Devastator class also fits the trope, especially since it has the range and damage of a grenade.
• Mega Man Legends: The reaverbot guarding the red refractor does this after it's diving attack. It's only weak point is it's head so the pattern is avoid the diving slide, shoot, then jump to avoid the shockwave jump stomp.
• Kingdom Hearts: Frequently used by bigger enemies.
  • The first game alone has Cerberus, Dragon Maleficent, the Rock Titan and possibly others.
  • Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance] has numerous player examples of this in the form of the various Dive commands, and the very abusable Shock Dive flowmotion attack. There's also Riku's Meteor Crash command, which is the most devastating one of all, bringing meteors down on nearby opponents in addition to creating a large shockwave.
• Pokémon:
  • In many of the 3D spinoffs, this is how the attack "Earthquake" is shown as working.
  • Pokémon Legends: Arceus: Noble Lilligant spends most of her battle leaping around her arena, creating circular shockwaves where she lands that will damage the player if they don't dodge in time.
  • Pokémon Ranger:
    • Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia: Regigigas creates damaging shockwaves with every step.
    • Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs: Regigigas does the same thing. This is even more annoying now that, rather than simply fighting it as an Optional Boss, you must fight Regigigas during the main story.
• Prayer of the Faithless: Trill's Demon Fist makes shockwaves with her fist(s) for an attack that hits all foes:
  Strike the ground, delivering a powerful shockwave.
• Tales Series: A number of artes like Destruction Field and Demonic Circle create these by having the user strike the ground with their weapon. Large monster types like golems and dragons frequently use them a means of offense, as well.
• The World Ends with You: The elephants. Repeatedly. And it will interrupt whatever you're doing. Even if you're floating in midair.

Shoot Em Up

• Hong Meiling does this as one of her attacks in Touhou Hisoutensoku. She also does this quite often during her cutscenes with other characters, mainly as a Shout-Out to more mainstream fighting games. It says in the skill description that she is manipulating chi to do this.

Survival Horror

• In Grave, the Progenitor creature attacks by emitting a psychic pulse that harms anyone around it.
• The Bogeyman in Silent Hill: Downpour uses this as one of his attacks. It's incredibly damaging, and stuns you. Figuring out how he does it is just about the only way to win when you turn into him.
• Gorgers in The Suffering can do this by slamming their flails into the ground, and this effect is demonstrated in their introductory cutscene. You can avoid the effect by jumping right before the flail hits the ground. Its sequel, The Suffering: Ties that Bind, has the so-called Isolationists, which can send out electrical shockwaves around themselves with a slight movement of their crutches. The Arsonists monsters can also create the flame shockwaves that set Torque on fire if he gets too close to them.

Turn Based Strategy

• Heroes of Jin Yong has one of the most powerful attacks from the original, when your chi is high enough you can inflict a carpeting shockwave (with the ground you're standing as point zero) that covers nearly half the whole arena and deals damage to everyone not on your side.

Third Person Shooter

• Fracture: It happens with the Bull Fight Boss.
• P.N.03 has the Griffin energy drive.
• In Vanquish's second Argus battle, its bipedal form has a stomp attack that generates an EMP, putting Sam's armor into Overheating.
• In Warframe, several enemies like the Shockwave Moa or the Jackal can stop and project an expanding bubble of orange energy that knocks you down, but is easy to avoid. The ultimate ability of Rhino warframe consists of planting his foot into the ground with such force that it slows time.
• One of the most powerful attacks that Captain Titus can pull off with a chainsword in Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine is a massive stomp to the ground that stuns everyone around him. In the case of other, more powerful melee weapons however he simply slams the weapon to the ground. It's also available to Devastators/Havocs in multiplayer, useful for stunning and disorienting enemies. Perks can increase the speed of the animation, and/or the range and damage.

Wide Open Sandbox

• Infamous Cole MacGrath utilizes this quite well. The higher you fall from, the larger the impact of the Thunder Drop would be. Very destructive if used and tends to lead to take downs of everything nearby Kessler also does this near his level. By punching the ground, he causes an earthquake that can leave you dying if you're hit. Later on, phantasms join his attack.
• Something like this happens when you fall off of a cliff in Minecraft. It doesn't hurt enemies, but hey. It's a cool particle effect at the very least.
• Bad Girl, a dainty little thing with a penchant for hitting men around the head with a baseball bat, does this in No More Heroes. Jeane can also do this despite being very lightweight.
• [PROTOTYPE] Alex Mercer can perform several variations of this, including a literal stomp. Dropping from sufficient heights, he automatically causes a shockwave on impact, but using special moves enhances the damage many times over. They can be most powerful moves in the game, but hellishly hard to aim.
• Saints Row IV not only has this attack, but features three different elemental variations: Rock (which flings "shrapnel" in all directions), Gravity (which lifts enemies off the ground, rendering them helpless temporarily), and Shrink (which is self-explanatory). The DLC brings in two new variants: Cash (makes credits explode out of enemies) and... Blast (turns everything - cars, civilians, enemies - within the area into a cluster bomb).
• The Dive Bomb melee attack in Sunset Overdrive generates a damaging shockwave that can also be used to boost the player.
• Terraria: The Ogre boss in the Old One's Army can damage ground-bound players by hitting the ground with its club.

Non-video game examples:

Anime & Manga

• A favorite attack of Accelerator from A Certain Magical Index is this. Ranging from stomps that send the earth in front of him, and any enemy, into the air to the traditional wide-range earthquake types that cause anyone nearby to fall or get hit with debris.
• Bleach: When Jackie Tristan faces Renji, she shows off her strength by stomping and making the nearby rock formations shatter. He is unimpressed and easily defeats her.
• Fairy Tail: Dragon Cry: Swan can stomp hard enough that the shockwaves travel through the air and knock a Storm of Blades off course.
• Medaka Box: One of the main characters, Zenkichi Hitoyoshi, uses this as his finishing move twice, once against a weapons specialist Munakata to knock all his weapons from the ceiling, another against Kumagawa knocking them both to their deaths in a Snake Pit.
• Toriko: Gaoh does this with its paw. It creates a massive crater and the shockwave goes on for 4 kilometers. Guiness has one so powerful it makes the Earth ripple and contort and the effect is visible from space.

Comic Books

• The DCU: Stompa of the Female Furies; for a heroic example, Thunder, the oldest daughter of Black Lightning.
• Marvel Universe has the villain Arclight.

Fairy Tales

• "Reygoch": The titular giant can shake the land and cause fissures simply by stomping on the ground.

Fan Works

• Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): The MUTO Queen is shown to have the same kind of EMP power as the male MUTO (see the Films Live-Action folder for details).

Films — Live-Action

• The Matrix Reloaded: Neo hits the ground, when he does his Dynamic Entry against the Smiths.
• MonsterVerse: Overlapping with Ground Punch, the male MUTO in Godzilla (2014) activates his EMP blast by slamming his foreleg's foot into the ground. It's mentioned in the sequel's tie-in graphic novel that his parent, the MUTO Prime, has footsteps which hit the earth with the force of a salvo of cannons.

Literature

• Morgan does this in one of the Dresden Files books via earth evocation, sending an entire mob of zombies flying.

Live-Action TV

• Kamen Rider OOO gains this power when he uses the Zou (Elephant) Core Medal. Even better, the Finishing Move for his SaGoZou (Rhino-Gorilla-Elephant) Combo uses a Shockwave Stomp to trap the enemy in the ground, then pulls them close for a double punch and headbutt.
• In Power Rangers Jungle Fury, the elephant-based Green Ranger can do this.

Tabletop Games

• Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition:
  • The stomp psionic power knocks enemies prone and does nonlethal damage to them. Half-Giants automatically have stomp as a racial ability.
  • The more powerful greater stomp sends a shock through a narrow line in the ground; those that can't avoid it are also sent prone and suffer real damage.
  • The earthbolt Wu Jen spell involves striking the ground and causing a line of sand, earth and stone to erupt from it, striking everything on its path.
  • From the Tome of Battle - Book of Nine Swords, the high-level Stone Dragon maneuver "Earthstrike Quake" consists in a weapon strike to the ground that sends everybody prone in a 20-foot radius (friends and foes alike).
• Some Charms in Exalted can do this, but the ones with the biggest oomph come from the Yozis.
• Magic: The Gathering features a few cards that do this, but Seismic Stomp is the most direct version.

Web Animation

• Dreamscape: Kai can create shockwaves of natural energy.
• RWBY has Yatsuhashi, a big dude on team CFVY who has this as a native ability due to his raw strength. This is best shown in the volume 3 Tournament Arc where he uses it to set off a field of geysers.
• In RWBY Chibi, Nora demonstrates her "thunder thighs" to Team RWBY.
  Blake: Wait, I thought "thunder thighs" was a derogatory term.
  [Nora stomps on the ground, causing a "Magnitude Nora Earthquake"]
  Nora: You tell me!

Webcomics

• In Everyday Heroes, the stomp is part of "The Backdoor Bounce" maneuver, and is used to knock a speedster off-balance.
• The Order of the Stick: The Monster in the Darkness lazily stomps his foot in "Shock and Awwwwww", causing a literal earthquake without even meaning to.
• In Star Impact, Sanfran's special glove ability lets him stomp the mat to cause small tremors in the ground, for disrupting his opponents' footwork.

Western Animation

• Amphibia: In "Escape to Amphibia", Anne does a shockwave when using her powers, sending the FBI agents flying while sparing her allies from the effect after the stomp.
• Ben 10: Omniverse: A couple of Ben's alien forms can pull this off. Crashhopper, being a grasshopper-like alien, can generate these upon landing and Gravattack can pull this off with his size and weight.
• In Challenge Of The Go Bots this is Crasher's signature move.
• Extreme Dinosaurs: This is T-Bone's signature move. It is called the "Saurian Stomp".
• Frozen (2013): During the song "Let it Go'', Queen Elsa stomps the mountain's summit to form the Ice Palace's floor when she sings the lyrics "Here I stand/And here I stay..."
• Kickablast, in MP4orce, can unleash shockwaves with her boots when in virtual form.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • In "A Rockhoof and a Hard Place", during his argument with Twilight, Rockhoof slams a hoof down, hard enough to briefly lift Twilight and Spike off the floor. He does it again from frustration in Meadowbrooke's tree house, forcing her to catch some medical supplies falling from shelves.
  • Yaks jumping up and down can cause a tremor, which get stronger if several do it at the same time. This can make for a quite efficient attack in combat, as seen in "The Ending of the End – Part 2", where a few yaks manage to pin down Queen Chrysalis for a while despite her boosted power.
• PJ Masks: Armadylan can stomp hard enough to shake the ground, making his opponents lose balance.
• Samurai Jack: The Scotsman's Wife can do this.
• In Star Wars: Clone Wars, Mace Windu is fighting a giant "seismic tank". A massive hovering vehicle close to the size of a Star Destroyer, which only has a single form of attack: A giant stomper that hits the ground below it with the force of a medium nuclear bomb.
• Transformers:
  • This is Blackout's specialty in Transformers: Animated — he can knock out electronics by stomping (and bring them back online by stomping again), hence the name.
  • G1 had the virtual poster child for this trope: "Rumble! Activate pile drivers!" BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! For a little punk, Rumble could do a lot of damage.
  • Sludge from the Dinobots can do a seismic stomp, too.

Real Life

• Ironically, elephants avert this trope: Because of the padding of fat on the soles of their feet, their footsteps are actually quiet and cannot shake the ground beneath.

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