Signature Move

aka: Signature Spell

Uppercuts And Elbows For Everyone!^note Not pictured: Koppu Kicks

"Expelliarmus is a useful spell, Harry, but the Death Eaters seem to think it is your signature move, and I urge you not to let it become so!"

— R. J. Lupin, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Many characters have a specific skill, attack, taunt, evasive maneuver, and/or spell they use more frequently than any of their other ones; this is the character's Signature Move. Sometimes, however, a Signature Move, like a catchphrase, may turn out to be more an example of Never Live It Down; i.e. the character doesn't actually use the move that much, but everyone calls it their signature move.

Sometimes characters who are of a similar group or background will have a Shared Signature Move that is taught amongst them. It could be because they're from the same family or school of fighting.

Any move or trope listed on Grandfather Clause is likely a Signature Move, as well. When most of the cast has one it's Everyone Has a Special Move. Compare Fighting Fingerprint. For video game enemy moves that are Signature Moves because of how dangerous they are to the player, see That One Attack. For skills and attacks that only a single character or handful of characters can use, see Secret Art.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Pretty much everyone in Bleach only has one or two moves, so by definition this would apply.
  • Ichigo's Getsuga Tenshō, a "slashing projectile" of some kind, shared with his father. And there is also a more powerful versions, which Ichigo unlocked.
  • Byakuya's usage of "Hadō #4 — Byakurai" (Pale Lightning) and also of the Flash Step technique "Senka" (Flash Blossom). Although, with the power of his opponents increasing, they have seemingly fallen out of favour.
  • Renji's Bankai firing a blast of energy, Hikotsu Taihō, is a fitting example. There is also Higa Zekkō (Bite of a Broken Baboon's Fang) where the sections of his sword split apart and fly at the target. However, this is a Desperation Attack as he can only use it when his sword is already in pieces.
  • Mayuri's poisons with different deliveries — his shikai is a poisoned sword, his bankai is a giant centipede with infant's face that breathes a cloud of the stuff.
  • Although Rukia Kuchiki has used other Kidō spells at times, in combat she regularly uses "Hadō #33 — Sōkatsui" (Blue Fireball).
  • Both Suì-Fēng and Yoruichi have the ability to use Shunkō (Flash Cry) an augmenting technique that combines the usage of Hakuda and Kidō.
  • Suffice it to say, everyone's Shikai can be considered their first signature move, and if they have a Bankai, it's their second. And then there are the Kidō.
  • Aside from just being ridiculously powerful, Aizen really favors the simple horizontal slash to the midsection. If he's going for dramatic effect, he whips out "Hadō #90 — Kurohitsugi" (Black Coffin).
  • Gillian-level Menos have the Cero, a powerful energy blast, and Arrancar can do this too, as well as possessing their own unique Resurrección.
  • In-universe, Grimmjow notes that Ulquiorra Cifer has a habit of killing opponents by stabbing them in the throat at the same spot as his own Hollow hole.
• Captain Tsubasa:
  • Tsubasa Ohzora has the Overhead Kick (his very first learned technique), and the Drive Shot, learned from the notes left by Roberto, a long-ranged shot that gives the ball a forward spin to propel it downwards to the net. He later develops an even stronger version, the Skywing Shot.
  • Kojiro Hyuuga has the Tiger Shot, which sends the ball towards the net with both speed and power, and its upgraded versions, Neo Tiger Shot and Wild Tiger Shot. His stronger one is the Raijuu Shot, which adds more momentum by kicking the ground before making contact with the ball.
  • Foreign players also have their own shots, such as Karl Heinz Schneider's Fire Shot (a shot so powerful it leaves the ball with a smoke effect), Ryoma Hino's Tornado Shot (adds additional power to the ball by spinning the body) and Carlos Santana's Arrow Shot (holds his leg like a bowstring before shooting). Sho Shunko has the Kickback Cannon, which involves timing right before his opponent shoots to give a counter-shot adding his own power to it.
• A Certain Magical Index has a few interesting cases.
  • Espers only have one ability, so they have to come up with interesting ways to use it. Mikoto's most famous trick is to accelerate a magnetic coin through the air at high speeds, which earned her the nickname Railgun.
  • Mages can learn multiple spells, and the best mage in this setting is a non-specialised one, because he is therefore more versatile and can counter more spells himself. And yet every single mage tends to have an affinity for a handful of spells which they use against everything. Stiyl has the fire elemental Innocentius, Sherry Cromwell has the golem Ellis, etc.
  • Touma himself has his signature Anti-Magic punch to finish off his opponents and "break their illusions".
• Code Geass:
  • Kallen Kozuki and her Guren MKII, which utilizes its powerful claw arm to grab enemy Knightmares and overload them into exploding with microwave energy. Close combat with the Guren, therefore, is inadvisable.
  • Suzaku Kururugi, meanwhile, has his patented Spinzaku Kick, which has him literally defy gravity to whirl into his opponents leg-first. He also makes use of this with his Knightmare, the Lancelot, using its leg-mounted Blaze Luminous shields for extra impact.
• In Digimon, Almost all Digimon have at least one Signature move and at least one Special move. For example, Agumon has Pepper Breath, Spitfire Blast (also known by its unfortnate Japanese name, "Baby Burner"), Sharp Nail, etc. and Gabumon has Blue Blaster, Horn Attack, Rapid Punch, etc. Most of the special moves are only named (like Sharp Nail or Gryemon's Tail Whip) or only appear in extended media or reference material though.
• Dragon Ball:
  • The Kamehameha is Goku's go-to attack when not using melee attacks. Unlike the signature attacks of the other characters, he's used it in a wide variety of ways, including from his feet, a single arm to provide a megaton punch, and with Instant Transmission to shoot it at point-blank range (as Cell found out the hard way).
  • The Kamehameha was originally Master Roshi's signature move, being the original inventor and the reason it's world-famous (when posing as Jackie Chun, he has to make excuses on why he knows it).
  • Goku also has a signature Finishing Move in the Genki Dama, or Spirit Bomb, a technique learned from King Kai which allows him to draw energy from living beings and concentrate it into a powerful sphere. It's main advantage is that its energy is not dependent on the wielder, allowing it to be used as a Desperation Attack.
  • Yamcha is introduced with his Rōgafūfūken ("Wolf Fang Fist"), but when what is essentially just a series of punches and kicks starts to lack a certain flair, he develops Sōkidan (the "Spirit Ball"), a ball of ki that he can manipulate at high speed. A useful skill, but given the power creep of the show...
  • Krillin's is the Kienzan ("Destructo Disk"), an absurdly sharp energy disc that he can throw and, later, control in flight. It never fails to cut anything it hits (until it fails against Cell), making it useful even against fighters that would normally be out of Krillin's league, like Oozaru/Great Ape Vegeta.
  • Tenshinhan's Kikouhou ("Tri-Beam") is a Dangerous Forbidden Technique that saps the user's life energy and carries a significant risk of killing him with each use. Supposedly. The Taiyouken / Solar Flare light-blinding technique is also heavily associated with him, to the point that Goku mentally apologizes to him before using it on the Saiyans.
  • Tien's buddy Chiaotzu had a telepathic technique that causes severe stomach pains and cramps in the opponent. Both were also the first users of Bukujitsu, or flight, something which would become common later in the series.
  • Piccolo's Makankosappo ("Special Beam Cannon") is a powerful beam attack that initially takes five full minutes to charge, limiting its practical utility until he works out the kinks.
  • Gohan's answer to the Kamehameha is his Masenko, which functions similarly but is fired by crossing his hands, palms out, above his forehead rather than in the familiar "fireball" motion. He learned it from Piccolo during his year of training in preparation for the Saiyan invasion, hence the "Ma" in the name, to mean devil.
  • Nappa's ultimate move is his Break Cannon, a powerful beam of energy that he fires from his mouth. He also has his Bomber DX, a powerful energy ball.
  • Vegeta never really gets one that sticks. He goes through the Galick Gun, Big Bang Attack, and Final Flash at various points. Most video games seem to settle on treating the Galick Gun as his generic 'big ki blast' attack, and the Final Flash as his devastating, all-out Finishing Move (with the B.B.A. being somewhere between the two). In fact, one of Vegeta's most commonly-used techniques is a generic volley of ki blasts (which never works).
  • The Ginyu Force has some for each member:
    • Captain Ginyu had his Body Change ability that allowed him to swap bodies with another, even injuring his own body to hinder his opponent post-switch. It's implied that the Captain Ginyu we see is not actually the "real" one, just another body he took over that was stronger than the last. He eventually gets switched into a space frog.
    • Jeice uses the Crusher Ball, a big energy ball that is spiked like a volleyball. He also uses his Red Magma charging attack, which combines with Burter's Blue Hurricane to make the Purple Comet Hurricane.
    • Recoome has "Recoome Eraser Gun" which erases everything it hits very violently. It's brutal but simple, much like the man himself.
    • Lastly, Guldo used the Time Freeze that froze time for everything except himself, although it was dependent on how long he could hold his breath for.
  • Lord Frieza's Death Beam is a deceptively small laser-like blast fired from his fingertip that pierces the victim's heart and nearly always causes instant death. He also has a much larger version, a Death Ball, generally used for destroying planets.
  • Future Trunks is interesting here. He has a very visually distinct Signature Move, but as he generally doesn't call his attacks, it's only named in the video games — the Burning Attack. He used it as a distraction move to set up his Shining Sword Attack on Frieza.
  • Cell's signature move is the fact that he takes the signature moves of his several genetic sources, most notably Goku's Kamehameha. Though he does have unique moves of his own (like his Perfect Barrier, which is a mixture between a super explosive wave and a shield of energy), none really stand out as much as the ones he has taken from his templates.
  • Mr. Satan's is the Megaton Punch, basically just an extremely hard punch. It'd be an impressive move if his abilities weren't stuck in the league of the second arc of the series.
  • Majin Buu fires a magical beam from his antenna that turns his victim into candy, which he consumes.
  • Because neither Goten nor Kid Trunks truly had a signature move, Gotenks goes and makes one up: The Super Ghost Kamikaze Attack. With this, he creates a series of flying, autonomous, intelligent doppelgangers that seek out a target and explode violently on contact. Though there are some kinks with it... for starters, they argue amongst themselves and with their masters, and sometimes forget that they explode with a touch.
  • Gogeta and Vegito both have fusions of signature attacks. For Gogeta, it is Big Bang Kamehameha, and for Vegito it is Final Kamehameha. One could also count Gogeta’s Soul Punisher attack as this.
  • Black and Zamasu have their Shin Retsuzan (God Split Cut) as their signature attack, forging blades made out of ki on their hands. The Shin Retsuzan serves as the basis for more advanced techniques.
• Fairy Tail:
  • According to Word of God, Fire Dragon's Iron Fist (Karyu no Tekken) is Natsu's signature move. (Insert Element) Dragon's Roar seems to be a signature move for all Dragon Slayers though.
  • Erza's Heaven Wheel Armor seem to be her Signature Armor. It even has it's own theme.
  • The Wizard Saint Jura Neekis has Iron Rock Wall, which as the name suggests creates barriers of rock stronger than walls of solid iron, and so signature it's the source of his Red Baron, "Iron Rock Jura".
• Fist of the North Star:
  • Hokuto Hyakuretsu Ken has to be the best known move ever because of this; even the "ATATATATA" yell is pretty much associated with it and nothing else.
  • Hokuto Shinken Ougi Tenryū Kokyū Hō is the technique that causes Kenshiro to rip his shirt apart.
• In Fullmetal Alchemist, Scar frequently destroys the ground beneath him when facing an opponent who has him outmatched. It becomes so well known that soldiers sent after him are actually told to expect it.
• Fushigi Yuugi gives us Tasuki. "REKKA SHIN-EN!"
• While not so much a specific combat move, Major Motoko Kusanagi is often introduced by allowing herself to fall backwards off a tall building with a peaceful expression on her face as a precursor to a Dynamic Entry into a combat situation.
• Hajime no Ippo: Ippo's Dempsey Roll, Sendo's Smash, Vorg's White Fang, Mashiba's flicker jabs, Kimura's Dragonfish Blow, Aoki's frog punch...
• From Inuyasha:
  • Inuyasha's wind scar.
  • Miroku's wind tunnel.
  • Shippo's foxfire.
• Although clean-cut techniques are rare in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, some characters have famous Signature Moves.
  • Jonathan and his Sunlight Yellow Overdrive.
  • Joseph's Clacker Volley is by far his most famous attack, even though he's only used it once.
  • Caesar Zeppeli's Bubble Cutter.
  • Wammu's Divine Sandstorm or Holy (Wub)Sandstorm. To do so, Wammmu twists his arms from the elbows to hands to conjure massive whirlwinds to attack his opponents.
  • Jotaro's ORAORAORA barrage, which is also easily the most famous attack from the entire series. His less often used Star Finger is also closely associated with him. One Fighting Game calls it "Blazing Fists".
  • The whole Joestar family from Jotaro onwards uses Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs as their means of attack. Some have their own variant shouts such as Josuke's DORA and Giorno's MUDA, while the rest use the standard ORA!
  • Avdol has Red Bind and the Crossfire Hurricane. Later on he also performs Crossfire Hurricane Special, an upgraded version of Crossfire Hurricane.
  • Kakyoin frequently makes use of his Emerald Splash.
  • DIO's time stop and knife throwing combination, as well as his infamous Road Roller drop. Most famously, he has his equivalent Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs to Jotaro's ORA!, only he just says MUDA! meaning "Useless". His son Giorno adopts this.
  • After attaining Echoes Act 3, Koichi makes frequent use of Act 3 Freeze.
  • Yoshikage Kira has two very memorable moves: Sheer Heart Attack and Killer Queen Bites the Dust.
• Kamui Den: Kamui's most iconic technique is the "kasumi-kiri," in which he draws a short sword from a hidden position in the back of his obi and cuts his opponent horizontally. A close second is the "izunatoshi" used during tree-top battles with other ninjas.
• Lyrical Nanoha: Nanoha is prone to launch her Divine Buster and Starlight Breaker to befriend... lots of things, really.
• Magi: Labyrinth of Magic has the protagonist Aladdin with a favorite spell, Halharl Infigar. This case is notable, as most of the main characters actually don't have signature moves.
• Mazinger Z has Koji Kabuto's and Mazinger's Rocket Punch and Aphrodite (or really, every Fem Bot) has its Torpedo Tits. Or arguably Koji's most used weapons as well which includes its Breast Fire and Photon Power/Koshiryoku Beam
  • Its successor Great Mazinger has its iconic Thunder Break which is its most used weapon and BY FAR the most notable, since its the move that Tetsuya used whenever he does the Big Damn Heroes duty.
• Every major character in Mobile Fighter G Gundam has at least one, but in particular the School of Touhou Fuhai has the various Finger attacks (including Domon's Shining Finger and Bakunetsu God Finger and Master Asia's Darkness Finger^note The Expanded Universe gives him two more, the Sunshine Finger in the manga 7th Fight and the Heartful Finger he used while a member of the Shuffle Alliance) and the Sekiha Tenkyoken.
• Mobile Suit Gundam Wing has a really strange invocation of this in Endless Waltz, where Duo recognizes that the enemy machine attacking him is piloted by his friend Trowa because it uses his technique...namely, spamming his Gatling gun. The manga adaptation fixes this by having the tell be Trowa's use an acrobatic dodge.
• My Hero Academia:
  • Invoked. The teachers at the Superhero School encourage the students to come up with their own "ultimate moves" — a move that represents them, assures their victory, and is so ingrained in their body that no one can copy it. They even lampshade some conventions of the trope (eg. the move should also have a name that is easy to say) when helping the class.
  • All Might has his Smashes, named after U.S. cities and states, something Izuku copies due to his Hero Worship of the man.
  • Izuku also has Full Cowl, his method to spread One for All's strengthening boost over his body at levels he can control.
  • Bakugo has Howitzer Impact, using his explosion Quirk to fly over his target and bombard it.
  • Yaoyorozu's Lucky Bag, a cannon she makes and fills with objects she makes.
  • Kaminari's Indiscriminate Shock, which releases a large amount of electricity around him to shock everyone around him.
• Naruto: Naruto's Shadow Clone Jutsu and Rasengan, Sasuke's Sharingan and Chidori ("One Thousand Birds"), Kakashi's Lightning Cutter (his more-powerful version of the Chidori), Rock Lee's Primary Lotus, Shikamaru's Shadow Manipulation Jutsu, Choji's various Expansion Jutsus, Ino's Mind Control Jutsu, Neji's Byakugan and 8 Trigrams 64 Palms, Itachi's Mangekyo Sharingan and Tsukuyomi, the different summoning jutsus, and many more. Practically everyone has one. Or more.
• Negima! Magister Negi Magi:
  • Negi has favored Jovis Tempestas Fulguriens (Jupiter's Storm of Thunder) as an important finisher in his arsenal since Day 1. He has gained much stronger spells over time, but he never really stops using it.
  • Fate Averruncus is fond of Pnoe Petras (Breath of Stone), which he usually uses to petrify people, thereby winning without wasting his time with an actual fight.
  • Setsuna's seems to be either Zanganken (Stone-Cleaving Sword), which was the first technique she ever used in the series^note attentive Ken Akamatsu fans will note that it was also the first move Motoko and Kuroumaru ever use as well or Shin Raikouken (True Lightning Sword) for the incredible display it put on during her fight with Evangeline.
• One Piece:
  • Luffy has several attacks. While his most notable may be Gomu Gomu no Pistol and its variations, he has also used Gatling and Bazooka a fair amount. At one poll, Luffy's Gatling is voted as the best move in the manga at the time, so later, he defeats Lucci with an upgraded version of it (Jet Gatling).
  • Zoro has the "Oni Giri", a three-way slashing attack. It's not his flashiest move, but it's definitely the one he uses the most. There's also his quick draw sword moves and his Pound Hou (Pound Phoenix) moves.
  • Nami has "Thunderbolt Tempo", where she creates a electrically-charged raincloud that releases lightning.
  • Usopp has the "Fire Bird Star", a flaming bird-shaped projectile. He also has his "Usopp Pound", which is the most famous of his joke moves, as well as Usopp Wagomu (Rubber Band).
  • Sanji has a whole Signature Combo involving several kicks named after cuts of meat. The finisher, Mouton Shot (a kick in the midsection that sends the foe flying), tends to be the most notable part of it. Later on, he's also known for Diable Jambe and Sky Walk.
  • Chopper has "Heavy Gong", a basic punch to the face done in his Human Form.
  • Robin has her "Clutch" technique, which uses her summoned arms to bend an opponent backward and break their spine.
  • Franky has the "Coup de Vent", an air pressure cannon done with both arms (After the time-skip he can do it with one). More recently, he has also gained the "Radical Beam", a laser also performed with both arms.
  • Brook has the "Three-Verse Humming: Arrow-Notch Slash" (Hanauta Sancho: Yahazu Giri), a slash so quick that people literally don't see it coming (by the time they realize it, Brook is already sheathing his sword).
  • Enel has "El Thor", a huge lightning blast raining down from the sky, which he uses to punish infidels.
  • Ace and his Fire Fist (Hiken), a large fist-shaped fireball. He received his epithet after it. Later, long after Ace's death and his Flame-Flame Fruit reappearing in Dressrosa Arc, Sabo (Ace and Luffy's sworn brother) gets to eat it and the first thing he does is doing Ace's Fire Fist as an homage.
  • Rob Lucci can use all 6 of the Rokushiki (Six Skills/Styles), but his specialty is Shigan (Finger Gun), a poke with the finger with the force of a pistol, and he devises derivatives of it. He's also the only one among his comrades to be able to use the seventh, secret technique: Rokuougan (Six King Gun), basically a 2-fisted one-inch punch.
  • Magellan has "Hydra", a dragon made of poison.
  • Ivankov and his "Hell-Wink", a wink strong enough to deliver air blasts.
  • Sir Crocodile has two: Desert Spada (a blade of sand that travels through the ground) and Sables (a sand tornado).
  • Donquixote Doflamingo has "Parasite", strings that attach to people, turning them into puppets that he can control.
  • The Admirals have techniques based around their epithets (Blue Pheasant/Red Dog/Yellow Monkey), but they don't usually use them. While we've seen Aokiji's (an ice bird-shaped projectile) and Akainu's (a magma dog-shaped punch/blast), we haven't seen Kizaru's (outside of a potential one in a non-canon game, a monkey head-shaped laser in this case).
    • Aokiji himself is often associated with his mass-freezing "Ice Age" move, the very first move he used onscreen.
  • Gekko Moriah has "Doppleman", where he puts his shadow to fight in his place.
  • Elbaf has one in the "Hakoku" (translation: Mighty nation). Big Mom knows a variant, given as she grew up there.
  • Kaido has the "Raime Hakke" (translated either as Thunder Bagua or Eight Trigrams). His son Yamato can also do it, but weaker enough compared to Kaido's his version is mockingly dubbed "Raime Yonke" (Thunder Badua or Four Trigrams)
• Pokémon
  • Pokémon: The Series: Pretty much almost every Pokémon has a signature move. Examples:
    • Pikachu's core movset has consisted of Thunderbolt, Quick Attack, and Iron Tail ever since Hoenn; his fourth move varies by region.
    • Charmander and as a Charmeleon and Charizard (and for that matter all of Ash's fire types ^note except Talonflame) has Flamethrower. And in nearly every battle, specifically the ones in which he is listening to Ash, Charizard uses Seismic Toss.
    • Ash's Squirtle has Skull Bash, Bulbasaur has Solar Beam, Treecko has Bullet Seed then Leaf Blade after evolving, Corphish has Crabhammer, Snivy has Attract and Leaf Storm, Oshawott has Razor Shell, Leavanny has String Shot, and Talonflame has Flame Charge.
    • Aura Sphere is this for Lucario. The two were introduced at the same time and every Lucario since bar one has used this attack.
    • Alain’s Mega Charizard X tends to finish foes off with Blast Burn.
  • In Pokémon Adventures, the Elemental Hyper Beams eventually become this for the Dex Holders of the first three generations and their starters. Meanwhile, Yellow, commanding Red's Pikachu along with her own and Gold's Pichu, gets Volt Tackle.
• Pretty Cure: Aside from their signature magical attack, every Magical Girl and ally has her own physical attack move that she constantly ends up doing. For example, White's twirling front flip, Rose's elbow jab, or Sunshine's use of actual martial arts moves.
• The Prince of Tennis:
  • Ryoma and his Twist Serve and Drive moves.
  • Momoshiro's Dunk Smash.
  • Kaidoh's snake.
• Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Mami's Tiro Finale is pretty iconic and there hasn't been one installment of the franchise where she hasn't launched it at least once. She merges a handful of her muskets to produce a gun that is as big as her and then fires a devastating energy beam. This also makes it the Super Special Move version of her normal musket attacks.
• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Simon's^note and whoever his copilot is at the time's GIGA DRILL BREAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKAAAAAAAAAAAAA
• In Ranma ½, Ranma goes through several signature moves before developing the Hiryuu Shoten Ha (the "Heavenly Dragon Ascension Wave" that creates a gigantic tornado) and The Rival Ryoga his ShiShi Hokodan ("Lion Roar Shot" — a Ki Manipulation powered by sheer literal angst). Even Kuno has his "Blue Thunder Attack". Spoofed with Genma and his "Crouch of the Wild Tiger" (which is shameless grovelling).
• Red Baron: The titular robot has two signature moves: the Electrigger (channels hot energy into its arms to deliver devastating punches) and the Rolling Thunder (channels the energy into the legs for an aerial spinning kick).
• There's a ton of them in Sailor Moon, each usually lasting until the next upgrade:
  • Sailor Moon: Moon Tiara Action/Moon Frisbee, Moon Healing Escalation, Moon Princess Halation, Moon Spiral Heart Attack, Rainbow Moon Heartache, Moon Gorgeous Meditation, Starlight Honeymoon Therapy Kiss, and Silver Moon Crystal Power Kiss, all in that order. There is also a manga-only ultimate attack, Silver Moon Crystal Eternal Power.
  • Sailor Mercury: Shabon Spray, Shine Aqua Illusion, Mercury Aqua Rhapsody
  • Sailor Mars: Fire Soul, Akuryo Taisan (exorcism for demons), Burning Mandala, Mars Flame Sniper
  • Sailor Jupiter: Supreme Thunder, Flower Hurricane (in the manga), Sparkling Wide Pressure, Jupiter Oak Evolution
  • Sailor Venus: Sailor V Kick (the only physical move), Crescent Beam, Venus Love-Me-Chain, Rolling Heart Vibration (manga only), Venus Wink Chain Sword (manga only), Venus Love and Beauty Shock
    • In the anime the Crescent Beam is particularly prominent, as she doesn't fully abandon it until the final season, well after acquiring more powerful moves, while in the manga she ditched it before the start of the series (she used it a lot in Codename: Sailor V, but never used it once in the main series).
  • Sailor Pluto: Dead Scream, Chronos Typhoon (manga only)
  • Sailor Uranus: World Shaking, Space Sword Blaster, Space Turbulence (manga only)
  • Sailor Saturn: Death Reborn Revolution, Silence Glaive Surprise
  • Sailor Chibi Moon: Pink Sugar Heart Attack
  • For Tuxedo Mask in the anime, there's his signature rose toss, while in the manga, he has his own power, Tuxedo La Smoking Bomber.
  • Sailor Neptune: Deep Submerge, Submarine Reflection, Submarine Violon Tide (manga only).
• Saint Seiya:
  • Seiya's Pegasus Ryuusei Ken fires countless punches in a wide spread over the opponent's entire body, with such speed and power they flash like meteors with each impact. Later in the series, he gradually starts blasting out a bolt of Cosmo with each punch, turning it into a ranged attack.
  • Shiryu's Rozan Shoryuha delivers an uppercut that sends out an energy dragon flying upwards.
  • Hyoga's Diamond Dust. He sends bursts of Cosmo into the air to cool it (and possibly to draw in air moisture) before unleashing a burst of cosmos that will assume the form of a focused hailstorm and freeze his opponent.
  • Shun mostly uses his Nebula Chain to attack his foes. When that fails, he can use the Nebula Stream, or its stronger version, Nebula Storm.
  • Ikki's Ho-oh Genma-Ken pierces through the victim's the brain, bringing out his deepest fears. It traps the victim's mind in an illusion, either confusing temporarily the subject or leaving him in a catatonic state (possibly even killing him).
• In Slayers Lina tend to express her strong disapproval in a way predictable even more than impressive. "Dragon Slaaaaavu"! There's also Amelia and her Vistfanrank spell, and Zelgadis' Astral Vine spell, both which act as enhancements. The aformentioned two also use the Ra Tilt spell frequently, usually together. In the novel series, there is also Luke's Ruby-Eye Blade spell.
• From Soul Eater:
  • Maka/Soul: Witch Hunter, and lately Demon Hunter.
    • And of course, who could forget her classic: the Book-to-the-head.
  • Black*Star/Tsubaki: Deadly Big Black Star Wave(Black Star only) and later Shadow Star
  • Death The Kid/Liz/Patty: Death Cannon
  • Shinigami: Shinigami Chop
  • Crona/Ragnarok: Screech Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta
  • Medusa: Vector Arrow and Vector Plate
• Sword Art Online:
  • There are randomly obtained "extra skills" that can be earned through difficult circumstances. Some are easier than others — Klein's Katana skill can be obtained simply by using Curved Swords a lot — but many others are so rare, with requirements no one understands, that they turn into this trope. One of the most notable is Kirito's Dual Swords skill, which he kept hidden for as long as possible to give him an edge. No one else has it.
  • Mother's Rosario begins with Asuna learning of a powerful duelist in ALO, Yuuki, who is offering a signature skill of their own to whoever can best them in a duel, a powerful eleven-hit combo Sword Skill. Asuna receives the skill from Yuuki in her dying moments after giving it the name "Mother's Rosario".
• While several characters in Rurouni Kenshin have a favorite move, the most prominent is Saito's Gatotsu, as his fighting style is centered entirely around four variants of that move. He even explains why a signature move is a good idea: In an environment where most fights are life or death, you rarely face the same opponent more than once. Therefore, you're better off learning one move really well than trying to learn a wide variety of techniques.
  • While it's not his original move, Sanosuke essentially adopts Futae No Kiwami as his signature move during the latter half of the manga. It does well enough against most foes, provided they aren't Shishio...
• Tiger Mask has a few: apart from the real-world wrestlers, the various original characters tend to have a signature move that often doubles as Finishing Move. For his own, our protagonist has four of them: the German Suplex (a real world wrestling move that he adopted as his Finishing Move at the start of his Heel–Face Turn and never fully abandoned), the Super Tiger Drop (his first original finisher, originally tested on a bear. It worked), the Fujiyama Tiger Breaker (created to replace the Super Tiger Drop after Mr. Chi showed to the world how you counter it) and the Tiger V (his final finisher, created to take on Miracle 3 who could counter the Fujiyama Tiger Breaker. Manga only).
  • Also, Tiger Mask used to have a signature move called Tiger Choke, but had stopped using it even before his Heel–Face Turn for two reasons: one, it's so lethal that it was banned in thirteen states of the US as attempted murder; two, it's so terrible that even Tiger's Cave wrestlers are horrified by it, and even Tiger Mask preferred using it only in special cases, like when a Tiger's Cave wrestler punched Kenta. The one time it was used on screen, the guy who punched Kenta was nearly killed in seconds.
• As the sequel of the Tiger Mask anime, Tiger Mask W has a few:
  • The German Suplex is the signature move of the tiger-themed wrestlers, with almost all of them using it at least once.
  • Yellow Devil has the Devil Crush and especially the Devil Tornado, a Tornado Chop used wearing gloves with sharpened nails. When the Devil Tornado fails to draw blood it's the first sign that the Yellow Devil on the ring is a fake, and the first move The Third uses after being confirmed as Yellow Devil with a new mask is the Devil Tornado.
  • Tiger the Dark is associated with piledriver variations.
  • Tiger Mask has an unnamed move (it's actually named Tiger Bomber, but Haruna did not make it public for obvious reasons) and the Tiger Fang.
  • Tiger the Great the Third has his signature Sacrifice.
  • King Tiger has his kicks.
  • Big Tiger the Second has the Skewer.
  • Tiger the Black has the Black Crush. His reliance on it eventually leads to his defeat and a Career-Ending Injury, as Makabe finds out how to counter it and unleashes a terrifying No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.
  • Spring Tiger is initially notable for her very simple yet effective style, but ultimately switches to kicks after she realizes it's easily countered by the more experienced opponents.
• Several characters in Yu-Gi-Oh! have signature cards, obviously it's pretty much always the most powerful card in their deck, but some of the more prominent characters get what can be called "Signature Combos"; Yugi likes to hide his Black Magician inside the Magical Hats to protect it from stronger monsters (and sometimes throws in the Spellbinding Circle to catch enemy monsters who attack the wrong hat) (Yugi tends to hide his Black Magician at the exact same place), Jonouchi uses Time Wizard to age his Baby Dragon until it Takes A Level In Badass, and Kaiba has what amounts to "play as many dragons as possible as fast as possible" and deck destruction combos.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL has Yuma and the Spell Card "Double Up Chance^note "Double or Nothing!"", which he uses after negating Hope's first attack to launch a more powerful second attack. Notably this is a combo that tends to be used when Astral isn't giving Yuma advice or whe Yuma is deliberately ignoring it, making it the signature move of Yuma, and not Yuma and Astral. Yuma wins more than half a dozen duels with this combo and there are only two instances where he doesn't win with this combo (either by using it early or by stopping the second attack himself). Because of this combo, Nasch actually has a card to counter it and reflect the battle damage on Yuma, but since Yuma negates the second attack as well, Nasch loses the duel because of his own counter card.
  • In Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS, Duelists in Speed Duels gain access to Skills, once-per-game abilities that can grant them a boon to maintain dominance or stage a comeback. It is not known how the Skill is determined, but it is apparently tailored to the duelist's playstyle. Playmaker's skill, Storm Access, is the most known signature skill.

Asian Animation

• The Supermen in Happy Heroes all have one specific attack that they're best known for.
  • Happy S. has his Happy S. Punch.
  • Sweet S. has her Sweet Protection Bubble/Dome.
  • Smart S. and his Smart S. Magnet.
  • Careless S. and his Careless Missle.
  • Careful S. and his Careful Duplicate.
• In Kung Fu Wa, Kung-Fu Girl's special move is Rainbow Cyclone Kick a double kick delivered with all her might while covered in a rainbow.

Comic Books

• Alpha Flight: Snowbird can turn into an all-white version of any animal, but her favorite form is a human-sized snowy owl.
• Aquaman: Aquaman's go-to attack is the double-handed trident stab or throw◊. He's not averse to summoning sharks as a signature attack either◊.
  • His wife Mera got her Making a Splash powers which she sometimes upgrades to a full on tidal wave.
• Batman:
  • Batman has the Offhand Backhand. People DO NOT sneak on Batman without getting a faceful of wrist and knuckles for their trouble. In Injustice: Gods Among Us, he does it against Insurgency Batman prior to their battle. Yes, not even another Batman is safe from his infamous Sucker Punch.
    • His second most common attack is the Dynamic Entry from a glass roof onto Mooks (though he sometimes does it outside), other than there's the Batarang to the hand as a way of disarming foes.
  • Bane has Hoist Hero over Head, followed by cracking over the knee.
  • Early in her career Stephanie Brown (Spoiler/Robin IV/Batgirl III) was starting to "get famous for her roundhouse right" as noted by her boyfriend Tim Drake, but she later rounded out her fighting style.
• Black Canary's Canary Cry.
• Captain America and his shield throw, or the Shield Bash.
• The Creeper likes to jump on people's heads and or shoulders. His laugh also qualifies.
• Darkseid has his Omega Beams which can function as a Swiss-Army Superpower. His most used physical attack is a backhanded slap◊ or [1]◊ punch, usually used to demonstrate superiority to whoever he's fighting
• The Disney Mouse and Duck Comics characters sometimes have a few:
  • Magica's differ depending on where the story was made:
    • In most comics her signature attack is the "Foof" bomb, a little stunning bomb that she carries by the dozen and will throw the moment she feels cornered.
    • In Italian comics, where her powers are much greater, she's fond of charging on top of her flying broom, weaving through enemy attacks while casting the appropriate spells.
  • Paperinik (Donald's superhero/AntiHero identity) uses the paralysis ray gun and the spring-loaded punch (usually from his belt, but he's also prone to use traps based on it).
    • In Paperinik New Adventures he gets technologically superior weapons. There his signature gadget is the Extransformer Shield, a shield with multiple integrated functions... Of which the most used are the "bradionic paralyzer" (that suspends the target's subjective time. The effect is akin to temporarily turning them to stone) and the Crusher, a more effective Power Fist.
  • Super Goof is effectively Goofy with a power set remarkably similar to Superman's, only with a timer. Of the many abilities he has, the most used against enemies is the Super-Breath, as it's the one with the lowest risk to hurt normal criminals-usually (one once got sneezed on, and was sent him flying in the tree of Donald's house all the way to Duckburg. The next day he went and berated Super Goof for it, making him cry to the point he sneezed him on Donald's tree again).
• Doctor Doom typically shoots beams from his fingers and hands, he also uses magic on his hand which was effective against Luke Cage◊ and even Hulk◊. In most modern comics and games he tends to use green lighting.
• Doctor Strange, when appearing outside of his own stories, has a handful of spells he uses pretty regularly: a beam from the Eye of Agamotto, the Shields of the Seraphim, and the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak.
• Among the Fantastic Four, Johnny has "Nova◊", Sue uses a room clearing force-field attack◊ and Reed usually wraps himself around a foe◊ or punches foes from across the room Luffy-style◊. Ben's Signature Attacks, tend to overlap with his Friendly Rival Hulk see below.
• The Flash's Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs, or if he needs to hit someone particularly hard, his infinite mass punch (which consists of building up velocity for a single blow by running an enormous distance in an instant — sometimes all the way around the planet).
• Ghost Rider's Fire Breath, Fire Chains and the Penance Stare.
• The Goon: Franky has "Knife to the eye!"
• Green Lantern's giant green fist◊/hammer◊ is the most common GL move. Some more creative Lanterns such as Kyle Rayner bust out◊ the Humongous Mecha.
• The Incredible Hulk: The Hulk's Thunderclap it's so strong the force can snuff out the Human Torch's fire, wreck foes like Gladiator◊ and Red Hulk◊ cancel out Songbird sonic scream◊, and it's especially painful for foes with sensitive super senses like Spider-Man and Wolverine◊. In his Crowning Moment of Awesome during Immortal Hulk he uses thunderclap to blow away the One Below All itself◊.

  • Less powerful than the Hulk's but Fantastic Four's The Thing does this too, he once one-shot Magneto with it.

• The Inhumans: Black Bolt has his quasi sonic scream which can give the likes of Thor◊, Hulk◊ and Thanos trouble.
• Iron Man's Unibeam or Hand Blast. Other times Tony will use missiles and lasers.
• The Kingpin often puts his 350 pounds of muscle to use by grabbing someone and crushing them to death in a Bear Hug.
• Knights of the Dinner Table. When Brian plays a magic user his character almost always casts Fireballs in combat. One of his catchphrases is "Fireball coming online!"
• Lady Shiva has her "Leopard's Blow", a fatal strike to the face. When victims of this attack are found Batman, Batgirl, Red Robin and Richard Dragon know it means she's near.
• A similarly-named punch ("Leopard's Paw") is used in the Batman/Manhunter crossover story "Gotterdammerung", Batman gets knocked down by a masked character called "The Enforcer". When he faces the Enforcer again, he explains that he knows who's behind the mask, because the particular blow used is a signature move of one of Batman's former sparring partners. The story also lampshades the downside of overusing a signature move: when the Enforcer tries it again, Bats is ready for it and hits him with a devastating counter-strike, ending the fight.
• Shazam has a variety of lighting attacks but his move of saying "Shazam" over and over again while avoiding or blocking the lighting blast (since it will turn him back into Billy Batson) while it hurts his target (usually Superman) is his most iconic.
• Spider-Man: Spider-Man likes to shoot webs at the eyes of his foes to blind them, and he does it to literally everyone, including Thanos◊, also his full body web-attack works a charm (even against a Flying Brick). At other times the dropkick is Spidey's go-to move, or web-covered fists◊ when he's feeling fancy or facing Electro.
• Superman has the iconic single or double-fisted flying punch that gets referenced a lot in other comics and movies (like Wreck-It Ralph and one of the Jacky Chan Armour of God films). It's actually called the Superman punch in real life. He famously used against Darkseid in the Justice League Unlimited finale. He also has the classic Punch Catch when he's done◊ playing with an opponent, usually◊ followed by◊ punching◊ them out
  • In the DC Extended Universe, he slams into his enemies at Mach 3, as some sort of Dynamic Entry.
  • In extreme circumstances Supes will use his Heat Vision as a Finishing Move.
• Thanos typically uses a Hand Blast or Eye Beams but when using the Infinity Gaunlet he likes to turn his foes into cubes or wraps, he's also a fan of bubbles, no joke◊.
• The Mighty Thor: Thor's Mjölnir throw is his most common attack (sometimes tricking his opponent into getting hit by it when he summons it back to his hand), followed by summoning lighting or just a overhead strike. There's also his "God Blast◊" attack which sadly rarely shows up in adaptations.
• Wonder Woman's famed "Bullets and Bracelets" maneuver — which also served as the finale to the Rite of Passage that won her the right to go to Man's World. It remained a mainstay throughout her entire history, even after several layers of retcons established her skin to be every bit as invulnerable as Superman's.
  • Diana's other signature moves are using the Lasso of Truth for attack and restraining. Sometimes she'll also use her Tiara as Battle Boomerang which was even effective against a possessed Superman.
  • In Post-Flashpoint comics besides her Cool Sword Diana has used her new father Zeus's Thunderbolt as her go-to attack◊.
• The X-Men have the "Fastball Special" and variations thereof when Colossus & Wolverine aren't available or on the appropriate team.
  • Cyclops's Optic Blast.
  • Jean Grey loves telekinetically throwing people, when she's possessed by the Phoenix "Phoenix Fire" tends to jean's most used move.
  • Magneto's electromagnetic field is his most common technique.
  • Iceman's Ice-Ramps are his means of fast travel.
  • You know that kiss move◊ Rogue does in Marvel vs. Capcom 2? Well, she does that◊ in the it comics◊ too.
  • Nightcrawler's Bamf, still one of the coolest powers in the Marvel Universe.
  • Storm's lighting, Ice and Wind.
  • Gambit's Kinetic Card, though it doesn't have to be playing cards to cause an explosion.

Fan Works

• In Ashes of the Past, Ash's Pikachu has this in the form of Volt Crash, the Electric-type variant of Hyper Beam. He later teaches this to Raikou, and Volkner is able to replicate the move.
• Having one In-Universe is Deconstructed in The Chains of Youth. The Ino-Shika-Cho combo was highly effective for 10 generations but it became so well known that every village came up with counters. It had become so predictable that Chouza suffered permanent arm damage against a single missing-nin.
• In Fate/Starry Night, Ritsuka recognizes the Dragon Bone Warriors sent after him as the work of either Medea, Medea Lily, or Circe. He concludes that they're Medea's given that they're not Circe's style.
• It is lampshaded both in and out of universe in Child of the Storm that like his namesake, Harry's preferred attack is "Kill it with fire, blow it up, then kill it with more fire, just to be sure." However, he's creative enough, and enough of a Combat Pragmatist that he doesn't rely on it nearly as much as some other examples of this trope do.
  • It helps that he has another signature move after his Psychic Powers properly kick in (after chapter 60), which is to use his telekinesis (he can use telepathy, he just doesn't like it very much), which becomes a problem when he's prevented from accessing them by a suit and gets beaten up by a Mighty Glacier who can shrug off his Kill It with Fire tactics (several broken bones later, he works out a solution). It even impacts his more mundane life — he has to be reminded to use magic rather than Psychic Powers in lessons.
• As Glitchtale is an alternate timeline of Undertale, which itself has "special attacks" as something established amongst monsters, of course it will have some of these. Some examples include Sans' Gaster Blaster-mination (creating a metric crap ton of Gaster Blasters that are all fired simultaneously), Gaster's Monotone (turning all of his Chroma Magic hands the same color to amplify a certain ability), Chara's "Special Hell" (stabbing their knife into the ground to cause a massive eruption of red energy), and Betty's Rhabdophobia (releasing a forceless wave of energy all around her that hijacks any magic in its area of effect).
• Space to Breathe (Naruto) has Sakura discuss the importance of this with Kiba, noting that high-ranking shinobi tend to have at least one technique that's considered to be their signature move. Hence her interest in developing her own in order to prove herself worthy of promotion. This eventually results in her creating the dual-element technique Metamorphosis, which lets her transmute water-based jutsus into earth-based ones and vice-versa.
• Kay'la from Vow of Nudity has used the spell thunderous smite in a truly staggering amount of different situations, barely any of them the intended use of the spell (dealing damage and knocking the victim 10 feet away). So far, she’s:
  • Used it on herself to send herself flying to safety after being restrained by a deadly foe
  • Used it on an ant (again, while restrained and essentially beaten) so that the thunderclap awakens and angers a nearby giant into attacking and blaming her opponent for the noise
  • Used it on herself to negate falling damage (by knocking herself 10 feet skyward milliseconds before she would have hit the ground at terminal velocity)
  • Used the thunderclap to start an avalanche
  • Used it on a bug after pretending it startled her, to draw attention from (and mask the sound of) her horse kicking a hole through a nearby wall.
  • Used it on herself mid-jump to gain an extra 10 feet of height and reach a ledge.
  • And yes, occasionally she even uses it for the actual purpose of the spell (sending enemies flying into hazards or off cliffsides).
• A little in With Strings Attached, but moreso in The Keys Stand Alone, John's two signature moves are coating people in warm ice and dehydrating them into unconsciousness. He can also blast them with water, but he only uses that on nonliving things.

Films — Animation

• The Lion King: It isn't made much ado about, but Nala gets a lot of mileage out of a tomoe nage + roll to pin combo. In the first film, she uses it to pin Simba twice as a cub and Simba immediately recognizes the move when they meet as adults. Simba then proceeds to use it in the climactic battle against Scar.

Films — Live-Action

• Jackie Chan has had many, many, many creative fight scenes over the decades of his career, but the most iconic one that people will likely remember first is the time he used a ladder to fight off a bunch of mooks.
• DC Extended Universe:
  • Man of Steel shows that Clark/Superman is Strong, but Unskilled, while he rarely has the martial abilities of his opponents he will often just ram into them at high speed, which few are able to counter.
  • Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice: Wonder Woman is able to smash her forearm bracers together to create a shockwave, typically after using her bracers for blocking incoming attacks. Batman's Grappling-Hook Pistol is also very important to his combat style, allowing him much greater mobility as well as snaring enemies.
  • Wonder Woman: Wonder Woman has a penchant of attacking low and knocking her foe's legs out from under them (previously seen in Batman v Superman as well).
  • Justice League: The Flash moves at Super-Speed and doesn't need to exert much energy to deal damage, so he can been seen interacting with objects with just his fingertips.
  • Aquaman: Arthur likes to use the ceiling as a blunt object to throw his enemies into. His mother was shown to use a similar tactic.
• Godzilla has his trademark Atomic Breath. Depending on the continuity the appearance and power of this attack ranges from a weak vapor stream to a full on high-pressure laser beam.
  • His infamous nemesis King Ghidorah has his Gravity Beams (despite its name, it's actually a blast of lightning) which he puts to good use every time he appears. In at least one incarnation the name of the attack is a bit more literal.
  • Mothra has her reflective scales that can turn even Godzilla's aforementioned breath against him, but usually when she uses this move it means that she knows she won't make it out of the battle alive.
  • As of Godzilla: Final Wars, Anguirus' signature move is to curl up into a ball and ram his opponent. The move has reappeared in many games and comics, and in one instance he even uses it to defeat a weakened Destoroyah.
  • The many versions of Mechagodzilla all have their own signature move. The Showa incarnation goes with a Macross Missile Massacre, the Heisei variant uses a stomach-mounted Wave-Motion Gun, the Millenium incarnation uses the Absolute Zero Cannon, and the Monsterverse incarnation has a red mouth beam called the Proton Scream.
• King Kong favors the Jawbreaker, and has used it across six different films, usually as a Finishing Move.
• MacGruber has his signature throat rip.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • Iron Man is a Walking Armory, but focus is largely given to his repulsors on his palms, anti-tank missiles in his forearms, and flechette missiles fired from his shoulders.
  • Captain America has his shield throw, which works as a Precision-Guided Boomerang, and his way of quickly rearming himself with the shield by stepping on its edge and flipping it to his hand. He's also very fond of the push kick.
  • Black Widow's signature move is to wrap her legs around people's upper bodies and force them to the ground.
  • Drax the Destroyer has his habit of attacking very powerful enemies with just his daggers and his strength.
• Fittingly enough, given its sources of inspiration, some effort was made to give each of the Jaegers in Pacific Rim a signature move or weapon, such as Gipsy Danger's plasma cannon, or Striker Eureka's chest-mounted missile launchers.
• In The Raid Redemption, Rama favours a specific rapid-fire punch, while Mad Dog likes to Neck Snap his enemy.
• Signature Move: Discussed by Zaynab with her coach when she's getting into wrestling, asking which can be hers of her coach.
• Star Wars: Every major Force user except Luke Skywalker seems to have one:
  • Master Yoda's signature move is telekinesis, such as the memorable scene in which he effortlessly lifts Luke's X-wing out of the swamp. He's shown using it to disable Palpatine's guards in Revenge of the Sith, and to defend himself against Count Dooku and Palpatine. Boh of them are very powerful Sith Lords, but in both cases their attempts to kill him by throwing things at him with the Force are a No-Sell.
  • Force Lightning is Palpatine's favorite ability (and Count Dooku is no slouch at it either).
  • Everyone remembers Obi Wan's use of the Jedi Mind Trick.
  • Before he was burned and put into his armor, Anakin's signature move was a flourish spin with his lightsaber behind his back. Between his armor's weight, bulk and cape, Darth Vader is incapable of doing such a maneuver so it makes a notable contrast between his two fighting styles.
  • Darth Vader is associated mainly with the Force Choke, but (rather oddly) the original trilogy films never show Vader using the Force Choke on an actual enemy, just people who've failed him or done something else to piss him off. This may be because in Revenge of the Sith, the first person he used the Force Choke on was Padmé, the love of his life. He finally chokes some rebels on the big screen at the end of Rogue One.
  • In the duels with Luke in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, Vader wants to capture Luke, not kill him, so he switches tactics and uses the Force to telekinetically launch nearby objects (or his lightsaber) to constantly keep Luke on the defensive.
  • Han Solo has a couple of his own. When flying the Millennium Falcon, he often rolls the Falcon onto its side to slide through a narrow passage, and also maneuvers radically through obstacles in an attempt to make his pursuers, usually TIE fighters, fly into those obstacles. He also has a habit of doing things that are not just unexpected but actively insane, such as jumping to lightspeed from inside a larger ship's docking bay.
• Troy, Achilles has his jumping downward stab, which he uses in his Single-Stroke Battle at the beginning of the film and several times after. Hector is the only one who can defend against it, showing that he is a Worthy Opponent.

Literature

• The Dresden Files: Harry Dresden and his Fuego spell. To the point where, in one book, his enemies were able to track him based on his use of fire magic, and in another book people kept saying how out of character it was that he wasn't using it. Harry has such a reputation as a pyromaniac that one book opens, "The building was on fire, and it wasn't my fault."^note  And, technically speaking, it wasn't him that started the fire; it was the flying monkeys that were throwing flaming poo at him. Though he'd provoked them by swiping a box of puppies... It Makes Sense in Context, alright.
• Harry Potter:
  • Harry has Expelliarmus, aka the Disarming Charm, which causes the spell's target to drop anything they're holding. In Chamber of Secrets he uses it against Lockhart and in Prisoner of Azkaban against Snape because it's the only combat spell he knows at the time, but Harry gradually comes to use it first and foremost even after he learns other spells. In Goblet of Fire he uses it against Voldemort because Voldemort's use of the word "duel" made Harry think of the Dueling Club, where he learned it. In Order of the Phoenix he teaches it to Dumbledore's Army as the first spell because of his experience with it. In Deathly Hallows he uses it against an Imperiused Stan Shunpike because other spells would have knocked him off a high-flying broom and Harry doesn't want to kill innocent victims of the Imperius Curse. This exposes him as the real Harry in a group of fakes. Later in Deathly Hallows he uses it to kill Voldemort.
  • Harry also uses the summoning charm Accio a lot, having gone to a lot of trouble to master it in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
  • Harry also has a reputation for producing Patronuses. These are essentially anti-Dementor apparitions. Dementors are Harry's worst fear, so it would make sense. Considering the effort he had to put into getting the spell to work at all, it's deserved. When he told (and in one case, show) a group of older wizards, likely in their forties and older, that he could produce a full body Patronus and not amorphous shield, they were shocked and impressed. It should be noted that Harry's Patronus is the same as his father's Patronus and Animagus form, a stag, which makes it even more significant.
  • Ginny Weasley has the Bat Bogey Hex.
  • Inverted for Antonin Dolohov, a minor Death Eater appearing in the book series, where he is almost always at the receiving end of the Full Body-Bind Curse (if he appears, that is). Played straight with a curse that's only ever identified as "Antonin Dolohov's curse," which causes massive internal damage as though being run through with a sword.
  • Gilderoy Lockhart is stated to have a talent in Memory Charms, though we only get to see him directly using it once where it backfires on him.
  • While certainly not the only wizard to use it in the series, it's hard to say that Lord Voldemort's signature move is anything other than Avada Kedavra. Crucio is his other signature move, as is Bellatrix Lestrange's main one.
• In The King's Avatar, the difficult Battle Mage maneuver Dragon Raises Its Head has only ever been properly executed by Ye Xiu so much that it is his calling card. This was how Ye Xiu publicly proclaimed his intent to return to the pro scene after using this move in a one-to-one duel during the All-Star Competition in front of shocked pro players and viewers. This alone was enough to convince his boss Chen Guo that he really is the Battle God.
• Stephanie Plum frequently uses Groin Attack to subdue her skips. Lula favors forcefully sitting on them.
• In Warrior Cats, Firestar's favourite move is his Playing Possum skill. He even uses it to defeat Scourge, the Final Boss of the original series. It gets lampshaded later on in the series (specifically in The Forgotten Warrior) by Spirit Antpelt, who points out to Ivypool that it was such a cool move that everyone copied it off Firestar and now it's just a tired old trick. He then gets erased from existence.

Live Action TV

• Despite it not being used for the first time until the third season, Jack Bauer on 24 became known for his sleeper hold.
  Jack Bauer: Don't fight it.
• On the Seattle sketch-comedy Almost Live!, Billy Quan always finished his "Mind Your Manners" shorts with a double-footed jump-kick that could go for blocks, travel around corners, wait for an elevator..
• It was more like a "signature skill", but in Cheers, Coach claimed that his specialty when he played professional baseball was injuring himself. As in, purposely getting beaned in order to gain a base. Norm claimed he held the league record in HBPs ("Hit By Pitch"). In one episode he claimed this was his way of meeting girls he was interested in — it helped gain sympathy.
• Cobra Kai: It isn't really made much ado about, but, as a reference to the first film, most, if not all, Cobra Kai fighters get a lot of mileage out of a certain crouching leg sweep.
  • Hawk has a superman punch as his for the first two seasons. It vanishes as he bacomes a more balanced fighter instead of relying exclusively on his offensive skills.
• The Reverse-Flash from The Flash (2014) can use his Super-Speed to vibrate his hand and use it as a stabbing weapon. It eventually gets named the Reverse-Flash.
• Game of Thrones: Just about every parody of Ser Gregor Clegane will feature him applying his thumbs to his victim's eyes before crushing his skull (and eyes). It does appear to be his favourite way to murder someone, as he’s done it to Elia and Oberyn Martell, and attempts to do the same to his brother.
• Genseishin Justiriser has Glen's Raging Flame, Kageri's Phantom Crush, and Gant's Versus Cannon.
• On Heroes, Sylar really likes to use his telekinesis to slice through people's foreheads. Originally, this was just practicality: his power required access to his victims' brains in order to steal their abilities. Then he started doing it to everyone, whether they had an ability to steal or not. In Volume Four, he recovers a repressed memory and discovers that he learned the move from his biological father, who used it to murder his mother in front of him when he was a child.
• Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger: Joe/Gokai Blue realizes that Mentor Cid Bamick was turned into Barizorg when the latter uses Cid's Signature Move (an X-shaped Sword Beam). Joe himself begins using the move, particularly when he fights the Mad Scientist who cyborged Cid and the battle where he finally kills Barizorg.
• The Kamen Riders are known for their iconic Rider Kick. Most of the time it's a Diving Kick but by this point they've used practically every conceivable form of kick as a finisher; the most noteworthy variation is probably Kamen Rider Kabuto's roundhouse "counter kick" (though he also has a dive kick version). Even if a Rider doesn't normally use a Rider Kick as their finisher, you can expect them to perform a leaping kick at least once.
  • Certain few Riders (usually, secondary and tertiary ones) are instead known for non-kicking Signature Move. They tends to use swords or guns instead as part of their signature move. Kamen Rider Den-O is the only time this happens to a main rider.
• Murdoch Mysteries: In "Murdoch Au Naturel", the Rooster family of armed robbers are known for stealing their victims' shoes to make anyone chasing them hurt their feet.
• Once Upon a Time: Regina's signature go-to is conjuring a fireball hurling it towards her enemies. It's very rarely effective and often an odd choice considering she has been schooled in powerful dark magic by the most powerful dark magic user in all the realms. It also seems to have become the go-to magic for her sister Zelena too.
• Power Rangers: Tommy's tornado kick.
• Star Trek:
  • Mr. Spock was intended to be a master of hand-to-hand combat, but it was decided that such an evolved being should have non-lethal tactics at his disposal, hence the Vulcan Neck Pinch. It can render anything with a neck instantly unconscious, regardless of how their biology works or how little sense it makes.
  • Picard has one named after him, the Picard Maneuver, in which he uses a rapid jump to warp speed to make it appear as though his ship is in two places at once. It is never used after the episode in which it is introduced, which makes some sense as Commander Data comes up with a defense against it; what makes less sense is that it's never used before the episode either, as there is canonically no known defense against it before Data comes up with one. A possible explanation is that its both difficult to pull off (precise timing of moving faster than light for a micro-second) and extremely risky (run into anything during the maneuver and you could end up destroying your ship)
  • From The Original Series to Voyager, multiple characters on the show use a distinct double fisted punch that's as unique to Star Trek as the Bat'leth or the Vulcan Nerve Pinch. This was apparently something that a single stunt coordinator who worked on all 4 series came up with and used throughout his tenure because it seemed unique, dynamic, and futuristic. On Enterprise they switched to more real-world hand-to-hand combat techniques for the MACOS, who were actual marines rather than astronauts.
  • The titular starship of Star Trek: Discovery is well-known for her unique spore drive, allowing her to instantly teleport across the galaxy. Whenever she uses this drive, the cocentric rings of her saucer section rotate in opposite directions, and then the ship herself pulls a snap-roll before disappearing.
• In Super Sentai, many of the rangers usually have two finisher moves; one that involves their special weapon and one that typically involves some kind of martial arts.
• The iconic attack of the Ultra Series has the Ultramen cross their arms to release a Wave-Motion Gun beam of light. The details of this move differ from Ultraman to Ultraman; from how they cross their arms, to the move's name, to other visual effects.
• Walker, Texas Ranger has Chuck Norris's infamous roundhouse kick, which is capable of one-shotting most of the bad guys he used it on.
• The Wheel of Time (2021) gives some channelers destinctive weaves, In the first season, Alanna fights mostly by using Earth mo make teh ground under an enemy explode like a land mine, while Logain can rapidly corrode metal. Neither are from the books (though Logain, being self-taught, woud be expected to rely on a few stand-bys, which might be wierd) presumably they were added to make it easier for viewers to keep track of them among the books hundreds of named characters.
  • The second season's Stinger intruduces Moghedien, who was already called "the spider" in the books. her attacks resemble webs.

Manhwa

• Last Fantasy had a spellcaster who dropped out of school after learning only the Fireball spell. He makes the most of it.

Martial Arts

• Judoka Masahiko Kimura is best remembered outside Judo for submitting Helio Gracie by Ude Garami. Since then, the technique has been nicknamed "Kimura" in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and MMA.
• Often seen in the boxing world as well, with certain boxers becoming well-known for their preferred techniques. Some of these include:
  • Ken Norton's crossed-arm defensive stance.
  • Muhammad Ali's shuffling and lean-back style of defense.
  • Joe Frazier's left hook, which was capable of putting anyone not named George Foreman onto the canvas.
• Undefeated former kickboxing champion Bill "Superfoot" Wallace got the name from his 60mph left roundhouse kick.
• Early MMA legend Bas Rutten was infamous for his strikes to the liver, which could crumple even the toughest opponents.
• Mixed martial artist and kickboxer Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipovic developed a reputation for being having ridiculously powerful head kicks that were also very hard to counter, at one point his kicks were described as "right leg hospital, left leg, cemetery".
• Mixed martial artist and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu expert Rousimar Palhares had an immense fondness for leg lock submissions, especially heel hooks, to the point where he wouldn't let go after his opponents tapped (which caused some serious injuries), that, mixed with his extremely erratic behaviour, got him fired from major promotions twice.
• Cuban boxer Gerardo González is widely credited for having popularized the Bolo Punch, which takes its name from the similarity between throwing it and swinging a bolo machete.
• UFC veteran Justin Gaethje is well known for his unorthodox striking game, which involves turtling up to the point where he can't really see his opponent very well, and countering after feeling the opponent's punches landing.
• Retired kickboxer and Mixed Martial Artist Pat Barry had so much power in his leg kicks that he finished fights with two or three.
• Alex Pereira's left hook, which is thrown with such force that it is often a One-Hit Kill punch, both during his kickboxing and MMA career, and is a technique that he is very good at herding people into with other strikes. He most famously knocked Israel Adesanya with it in their 2nd kickboxing fight, and has used it in MMA to knock out then future middleweight champion Sean Strickland, but also badly hurt Israel Adesanya and Jiri Prochazka before leading to a finish and winning the middleweight and light heavyweight belts shortly after. All of Pereira's knockouts and technical knockouts since he joined the UFC except his first have started with the left hook.

Professional Wrestling

• Pretty much every wrestler ever has at least one Finishing Move, and one or more other moves they use on a regular basis. For example:
  • Bret Hart, John Cena, Shawn Michaels, and many others each have their Five Moves of Doom.
  • "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, of course, had the Stone Cold Stunner, but was also a frequent user of the Lou Thesz Press (usually followed by repeated punches to the face), and often uses repeated stomps in the corner.
  • The Undertaker's famous rope-walk forearm club is always a sight to see. His Tombstone Piledriver actually remained after piledrivers were banned, because it was a Signature Move.^note  It helps that the tombstone is considered safer than a traditional piledriver because the guy giving it lands on his knees, leaving a little more room for error.
  • Rey Mysterio Jr. has his 619, which is arguably more famous than his Finishing Move (a springboard splash). It was even featured in an episode of Heroes.
    • Rey has a few other springboard finishers, but they are always preceded by 619, which could account for popularity of the move.
  • Brock Lesnar has the F-5, a spin-out fireman's carry toss.
  • Kenta Kobashi had the Burning Hammer, a Dangerous Forbidden Technique (it's such a risky move that the WWE has banned it for decades) that he used seven times. Each time it won him the match.
• There are a lot of wrestlers that have a move that isn't their Finishing Move but is just as iconic to the wrestler, they're usually a move that is hard to do or done really well. While it is extremely rare for a wrestler to get a pin from these moves, they are frequently used as part of a wrestler's Five Moves of Doom leading up to their Finishing Move.
  • Shawn Michaels' Diving Elbow Drop has never gotten a pinfall, but it's still seen once a match.
  • Chris Jericho's Lionsault (Último Dragón's Quebrada, they had a rivalry you see), he rarely ever gets a pinfall out of it, but yet it's regarded as one of his best moves.
  • Rob Van Dam's Rolling Thunder.
  • TNA wrestler AJ Styles' Pele Kick is not a finishing move, but it's a move that's so iconic of AJ that when John Morrison used it, WWE commentators called it the Pele kick. His another signature move is a combination known as Phenomenal Blitz.
  • Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit were famed for their German Suplexes (usually three in a row, but on special occasions a lot more), both of their primary finishers were submission moves however.
  • Triple H's Double A Spinebuster, which was one of his idol's, Arn Anderson's Finishing Move.
  • John Cena's Five Knuckle Shuffle.
  • The late Eddie Guerrero's triple rolling vertical suplex, nicknamed the Three Amigos.
  • Sting has the Stinger Splash. Other wrestlers, such as Shelton Benjamin, have adopted the move as a tribute to him.
  • Roman Reigns has his dropkick to opponent on the apron and his Superman Punch.
  • Daniel Bryan has the Yes! Lock submission hold, the running knee to the face (Colloquially dubbed "Solid Knee +"), and the repeated kicks to a kneeling opponent's chest, before a kick to the back of the head.
  • The Rock has the People's Elbow.
  • The Young Bucks have quite a few, but the most well-known is probably the Superkick Party, any combination of the two using superkicks to their opponents in the wildest ways one can imagine. It's only used as a finishing move when Matt and Nick use the move simultaneously.
  • Goldberg has his Spear, and is still considered to have the greatest one of all time, despite it not being his finisher (as it is for Edge and Roman Reigns). While he used the Jackhammer (Vertical Suplex Powerslam) as his finisher, it was his Spear that would pop the crowd because he'd hit guys with what looked like enough force to snap a man in half.

Tabletop RPG

• In The Dresden Files, wizards can take rote spells as these, meaning spells that the wizard has cast so often and regularly that they always work without risk of backlash or fallout. Harry's include the above-mentioned Fuego, and his shield spell.
  • Stunts in the Fate system in general can be readily used to model this — in fact, reflecting a particular character's specialties and repertoire of tricks beyond just their ranks in the system's various fairly broad skills is mainly what they're for (and not just for combat, either). Spirit of the Century even has a literal predefined "Signature Strike" feat which allows an (unarmed) signature move to be used up to once per fight scene for potential extra damage in the form of an additional consequence above and beyond whatever the attack would normally inflict...though this may be a bit of a subversion in that the mechanical effect is essentially the same for every character who takes said feat, and it's not altogether easy to acquire in the first place.
• In Dungeons & Dragons tradition arcane spells are named for their creators^note The rest of those spells are supposed to be mostly named this way too, but by now become too old and widespread to remember.. Sometimes this shows the named wizard's predisposition to one effect with different power levels.
  • Spells & Magic mechanics supports signature spells as one of known spells at each spell level. A wizard repeats the normal research procedure for a spell to get all fine details, spends a slot or CP and have a mix of specialist wizard's bonus and fighter's weapon specialization: one extra memorization and either +2 to level variables or -2 to saving throw or -3 to casting time. ^note And it stacks with specialist bonus. E.g. 1-lvl invoker memorizes Projectile Spell: 1 basic + 1 as invoker + 1 as a signature spell = 3, x 2 bolts (as if 3-rd level) instead of one = 6 x more total damage.
  • In D&D 3 "spell secret" ability allows to permanently apply one of metamagical modifications to a known spell (more spells with levels), but for some reason it's only class ability of Wu Jen from Complete Arcane and Mystic from Dragon Magazine. d20 core Archmage can make a spell-like ability (no preparation, no components, harder to negate) from a known spell, but it's not the same as normal casting.
  • Greyhawk — "Bigsby's <what-it-does>-ing Hand".
  • Forgotten Realms — "Nybor's <grade adjective> <disapproval>" Agony Beam spells.
    • Netheril campaign got names for the oldest ones, with very strong personal themes. E.g. Shocking Grasp = Volhm's grasp, Lightning Bolt = Volhm's bolt, Chain Lightning = Volhm's chaining.
    • D&D 3 Player's Guide to Faerun has Signature Spell feat which allows to cast one mastered spell instead of any arcane spells of the same or higher level, much like D&D 3 cleric converts into cure spells.
  • d20 replaces most of setting-specific (and copyrighted) names with "mage's" or removes them (Bigby's ____ Hand -> ___ Hand).
  • The Order of the Stick parodied this trend with "Evan's Spiked Tentacles of Forced Intrusion" and later "Bugsby's Flicking Finger" / "Bugsby's Expressive Sigle Digit". And Bugsby's Cat-Retrieving Hand.
  • In 5th edition, the "Signature Spell" mechanic lets a max-level Wizard cast up to two specific spells for "free" (without using a spell slot, and they have to be third-level or less) per day.
• The Solar Exalted actually have a Charm, Thunderbolt Attack Prana, that allows them to designate "signature attacks." By using said signature attack and paying the cost of the Charm, they're able to do ridonkulous amounts of damage.
• Each Clan in Vampire: The Requiem has three Disciplines that they are good at and one of them will be their specialty.

Toys

• In BIONICLE, Lariska deconstructs this: A Toa of Gravity's favourite attack is to remove gravity around an opponent and send them flying. She observes this trait and practices training in zero-gravity, then attacks him. When he uses his favorite attack...
  Lariska: I was ready. And he wasn't ready for my being ready.

Video Games

• Phoenix Wright of the Ace Attorney series has his iconic finger point, and to a lesser extent his two-handed desk slam. While other attorneys and some prosecutors make the same gestures, Phoenix is best known for them.
• Advanced V.G.: Yuka Takeuichi is synonymous with her Kikouden and its HDM variation, Kyuukyo Kikouden.
• In Artifact, each Hero Unit card in your deck also adds three copies of said hero's "premier card". Though this card can be a creep or improvement, it's most often a spell representing their signature special move. Some units also have an innate active ability.
• Art of Fighting: The Sakazaki Family is well-known for the Haoh Shoko Ken, which is Kyokugenryuu's trademark. Robert, who trained under them, is the exception. While capable of using Haoh Shokoh Ken and its variants, Genei Kyaku is said to be his signature special. All of them can also use the Ryuuko Ranbu (aka "Dragon Tiger Berserk Dance").
• Castlevania the Vampire Killer whip attack has great range and is iconic, then there's the flame version and also the cross throw where you use a crucifix as a shuriken.
  • Alucard from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night introduces dozens of new moves (spells) like his back dash◊, teleport◊ sword attack, Summon Spirit, Dark Metamorphosis Wolf Form Tetra Spirit, Hellfire and especially Sword Brothers attack.
• Devil May Cry:
  • Dante has several series-wide recurring moves, but his Stinger is available in every DMC game fairly early on, and labeled as a "classic original" in its Flavor Texts. It's even present in his Guest Fighter or Crossover Cameo appearances in third-party games.
  • Vergil's Judgement Cut. Vergil draws back and unsheathes the Yamato so fast that it cannot be seen by the naked eye. Nothing happens at first but then some distance away, a dimensional hole opens up and a group of slashes appear out of nowhere to cut up the target. Dante can also do this attack in Devil May Cry 4 once he has the Yamato/Dark Slayer style, where it is called "Slash Dimension" instead (and has a different appearance as well as somewhat less precision). A loading screen tip when playing as Vergil in Devil May Cry 5 also calls the Judgement Cut as a "core component" of the Yamato's arsenal.
  • Vergil's Summoned Swords as well. Vergil is always able to conjure small blades that can either be shot towards a target, circle it until he signals them to drop, or surround him as a shield. This ability seems to be tied to the Yamato, as Nero can perform the move upon wielding the weapon in DMC4. Unlike the Judgement Cut, Vergil had this move even during his time as Nelo Angelo, making this the only attack to be used in all of Vergil's appearances.
  • Nero has Snatch which functions as a grab attack to pull enemies close. It's a core mechanic for his Devil Bringer arm that's unlocked early on in DMC4, and used a lot in the cutscenes of that game, albeit to varying or overpowered degrees. When he lost his Devil Bringer arm in the beginning of DMC5, he still has a replacement of this move; the "Wire Snatch" that can be performed using his mechanical prosthetic arm, the Devil Breaker system.
  • In DMC5, the hand-shaped electric attack of Nero's Overture Devil Breaker is his most advertised move in the game's marketing artworks and trailers. It helps that Overture is his starting Devil Breaker arm.
• Played straight in a few Digimon games, where the Digimon in those games comes with only their own respective signature move, and one move shared with one or more other Digimon.
  • Certain other Digimon games (such as Rumble Arena and Digital Card Battle) pushed it further by giving every Digimon three moves that only that specific Digimon can use. For example, in those games, only WarGreymon can use "Terra Force", "Mega Claw", and "Great Tornado". At least one of the three moves is always the Digimon's Signature Move (for WarGreymon, it would be Terra Force), while the others are moves the Digimon is known to be able to use, but are not always seen as their signature (for WarGreymon, it's Mega Claw and Great Tornado).
• Donkey Kong started off throwing barrels in his debut game because those happened to be present in the construction site, but the Donkey Kong Country games find him throwing barrels in more variegated circumstances.
• In Dota 2, many heroes are strongly associated with a spell. Most often, this is their Ultimate ability, but there are a few exceptions:
  • Broodmother's Spawn Spiderlings
  • Dazzle's Shallow Grave
  • Drow Ranger's Frost Arrows''
  • Earth Spirit's Boulder Smash (specifically when used on his Stone Remnants, causing a lengthy, long-ranged stun)
  • Leshrac's Diabolic Edict
  • Lone Druid's Summon Spirit Bear
  • Mirana's Sacred Arrow
  • Nature's Prophet's Teleportation
  • Pudge's Meat Hook
  • Riki's Cloak and Dagger
  • Spirit Breaker's Charge of Darkness
• The Zap series of spells in Dragon Quest is easily the most iconic spell line that defines the Heroes, as they’re typically the only characters that learn the magic set. What makes this especially noticeable is the fact that in Dragon Quest V, the Hero of that game does not learn any Zap spells because he’s not a traditional ‘Hero’...instead, it’s his son who gets them as he levels up, as he fits the traditional Dragon Quest Hero mold better his father.
• Fatal Fury: Terry Bogard has three, with the first being his "Burn Knuckle". The other two are his "Power Wave" and its HDM variant, the "Power Geyser".
• Final Fantasy:
  • Most characters in the later games have a Limit Break that will usually be seen as their signature move (e.g. Cloud's Omnislash). Most classes have a move that's identified with them, especially the Dragoon's Jump. The Mascot Mooks also tend to have a signature move or moves: Cactuars have 1000 Needles, Bombs have Self Destruct, Malboros have Bad Breath, and so on and so forth. Main villains also tend to have a signature special attack designed to make the player sit up and take notice, beginning with The Emperor's Starfall and progressing through most of the games. The Summon creatures all have a signature move that they perform when called on (Ifrit's Hellfire).
  • From Final Fantasy VI:
    • Every character has a unique battle command, although some (such as Celes' Runic Blade) are too situational to count as true Signature Moves, while others (such as Edgar's Tools) open up a menu of options with no one option being truly Signature throughout the entire game. Those that do count include Terra's Trance, Locke's Steal/Mug, Sabin's Aurabolt, Banon's Heal, Cyan's Dispatch, and Shadow's Shuriken. Additionally, more recent titles that have featured the heroes from VI have had their Desperation Attacks ^note Moves that only triggered on a character when they were in critical condition, and only rarely — these were the precursors to the Limit Break attacks that would become standard in some form in every game going forward become signature moves, with Terra's Riot Blade, Celes's Spinning Edge, Locke's Mirage Dive, and Setzer's Red Card among them.
    • Kefka has also racked up a few signature moves of his own, starting with Heartless Angel, what with him pioneering its use and it being the first attack he uses during the fight, as well as his very own Goner/Forsaken and, naturally, the Light of Judgment.
  • From Final Fantasy VII:
    • Cloud's Braver and Omnislash, his first and final Limit Breaks respectively. The former being a powerful, leaping, vertical slash, quite often accompanied with various acrobatics to add centrifugal force to the strike, and the latter being a 15 Critical Hit combo to random targets. He also uses the Omnislash in the Post-Final Boss encounter with Sephiroth to finish him off.
    • Tifa's Beat Rush, Somersault, Final Heaven and especially Metodrive. Somersault in particular is in nearly every appearance of hers. After Final Fantasy VII Remake her Star Shower attack is becoming one of her staples.
    • Sephiroth has the Supernova attack, infamous especially in the North American release for having an Overly Long Fighting Animation that depicts the solar system being wiped out by a meteor and a supernova...all to take off 15/16 of each target's HP. As the years have gone by, Heartless Angel has also found its way into becoming one of his signature moves. After Dissidia gave him Hell's Gate, a downwards aerial slash based on how he killed Aerith, it also became one of his staples
    • Emerald Weapon has Aire Tam Storm, which inflicts 1111 HP of damage per Materia equipped to each character.
  • Final Fantasy X: Sin's Giga Graviton, which if allowed to fully charge is a Wave-Motion Gun that destroys the airship the party is on for an immediate Game Over, even if an Aeon is out.
    • The Jecht Shot was a signature move of Jecht, and later Tidus, in the Blitzball minigame. Tidus could also learn Jecht Shot II, a more powerful version of the shot.
    • While the main character had potential access to multiple Overdrives, Yuna's Aeon summons had one overdrive each. Many of them (such as Ifrit's Hellfire and Shiva's Diamond Dust) stick with the Aeons in other games that they appear in.
  • In Final Fantasy XI, every job had a "two hour," later made into a "one hour," ability that was on an outrageously long cooldown timer, but was usually outrageously powerful. Also, unlike every other job ability, the two hour wasn't available when you had the relevant job set as a subjob, in spite of every job getting their two hour natively at level 1.
  • Each party member in the Final Fantasy XIII series had their own full-ATB attack that they unlocked late in the game with Lightning's Army of One being the most notable example, being a usable ability of hers in each one of the games in the series.
  • Several boss enemies in Final Fantasy XIV have a cinematic signature move where they begin to build up energy. Unless the players perform a specific action before they finish charging, the attack will become a Total Party Kill.
  • Noctis from Final Fantasy XV had the Warp Strike as his signature ability, and also unlocked the Armiger Arsenal later on in the game.
• Even amongst those who don't play Fortnite: Battle Royale, it's best known for the default dance emote that players start out with.
• God of War's Kratos, and his Plume of Prometheus combo (Square, Square, Triangle).
• Guilty Gear gives us I-No and her Megalomania, which is infamous for being a screen-filling swarm of homing bullets that move fast and do high damage. So far, it's been a boss-exclusive super in XX and Accent Core, an Instant Kill in Xrd and a command grab-esque super in STRIVE.
• Kingdom Hearts:
  • Sora has Strike Raid, Sonic Blade, Ars Arcanum and Ragnarok, his special abilities from the first game; they were originally left out of Kingdom Hearts II, but the Final Mix re-release of the game added them back as the abilities of the new Limit Form power up.
  • Riku's Dark Aura, which has been usable as an ultimate attack in all of his playable appearances since the first game (where it was the strongest attack of Riku possessed by Xehanort's Heartless in his second boss fight at Hollow Bastion), although he had another version of Dark Aura in KHII when present as a party member for The World That Never Was that functioned as a volley of Dark Firaga-like projectiles.
  • Roxas has a Limit Break called Magic Hour, where he surrounds himself with six pillars that rotate before shooting out in all directions, causing severe damage. A variation of this would later become the Holy spell, named Faith in English translations, for Ventus and Sora.
• The King of Fighters has Ralf's "Vulcan Punch" and Clark's "Super Argentine Backbreaker", amongst other moves. From the protagonists, Kyo has his Oni Yaki, Orochinagi DM, and later his chain-punch specials, Benimaru has Raijinken (electric straight punch) and its stronger version Raikouken, and Daimon has Tenchi Gaeshi^note where he slams the opponent to the ground, then throws them to the air and its stronger version Jigoku Gokuraku Otoshi. Rugal is infamous for his Genocide Cutter.
• Kirby:
  • Not counting the obvious inhaling ability, the eponymous character has the Final Cutter, introduced in Kirby Super Star. Since then it has appeared in most of his games (except Kirby 64), as well as his Up+B attack in Super Smash Bros..
  • The Ultra Sword introduced in Kirbys Return To Dreamland becomes a new one for Kirby, due to it being used the most in that game. It also becomes his new Final Smash in the fourth Super Smash Bros.
  • King Dedede has the Super Dedede Jump as well as the ability to mimic Kirby's Inhale (though he can't copy abilities). He's also got a signature weapon in the form of his hammer.
  • Mach Tornado seems to be this for Meta Knight, making a number of appearances after its debut in Kirby Super Star, including Meta Knight's neutral B special in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and a Limit Break variant in Meta Knightmare Ultra from Kirby Super Star Ultra. In the anime continuity his signature move was Sword Beam, which Kirby also often uses as Sword Kirby.
• Given that League of Legends has tons of characters, only a small proportion of the cast need to have one of these for plenty of examples to exist:
  • Ahri's Charm.
  • Akali's Twilight Shroud.
  • Bard's Magical Journey and Tempered Fate.
  • Blitzcrank's Rocket Grab.
  • Caitlyn's Ace In The Hole.
  • Cho'Gath's Feast.
  • Darius' Noxian Guillotine.
  • Draven's Spinning Axes.
  • Fiddlestick's Crowstorm.
  • Fizz's Playful/Trickster.
  • Garen's Judgement.
  • Jarvan IV's Cataclysm.
  • Jax's Counter Strike.
  • Karthus' Lay Waste and Requiem.
  • Kassadin's Riftwalk.
  • Lux's Final Spark.
  • Malzahar's Void Swarm.
  • Master Yi's Alpha Strike.
  • Mordekaiser's Realm Of Death.
  • Morgana's Dark Binding.
  • Nasus' Siphoning Strike.
  • Nocturne's Paranoia.
  • Rammus' Powerball.
  • Singed's Poison Trail.
  • Sylas' Hijack.
  • Teemo's Noxious Trap.
  • Thresh's Dark Passage.
  • Twisted Fate's Pick A Card and Destiny/Gate.
  • Vayne's Silver Bolts.
  • Veigar's Baleful Strike.
  • Xerath's Rite Of The Arcane.
  • Yasuo's Sweeping Blade, in particular the tornado component.
  • Zed's Living Shadow.
  • Ziggs' Mega Inferno Bomb.
  • Zilean's Time Bomb and Chronobreak.
  • Zoe's Paddle Star.
• In The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel, Rean's signature technique that is acknowledged in-universe is his Spirit Unification where he strengthens himself and becomes immune to all sorts of ailments. Such that in the next arc of the Trails Series, the Calvard arc, the party ends up experiencing a Mass "Oh, Crap!" at the climax of the Intermission chapter where Shizuna Rem Misurugi also knows of the technique. She does acknowledge however that her version is inferior compared to Rean's.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • Link's Spin Attack, which was introduced in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and has been a staple of the series ever since. Before that, his Sword Beam, although it is often absent in the 3D games. If he's got a third one its his sword plant maneuver that is his final attack in some games.
  • Ganon's "secret technique of Darkness," where he makes himself invisible and then breathe fire at Link. It also counts as a Call-Forward to the original Ganon Boss Battle, with the addition of Bottomless Pit.
• Starting with Mass Effect 2, each player class has a unique ability that stands them apart from each other: Soldiers have "Adrenaline Rush", Infiltrators have "Tactical Cloak", Adepts have "Singularity", Engineers have "Combat Drone", Vanguards have "Biotic Charge", and Sentinels have "Tech Armor"
• Marvel vs. Capcom series gives us Cyclops' Optic Blast (and "BEHOLD! Optic Blast!"), Wolverine's Berserker Barrage (and its Hyper Combo version), Captain America's Shield Slash and Charging Star, Iron Man's Unibeam and Proton Cannon, Hulk's Gamma Crush and Gamma Wave/Tsunami, Spider-Man's Web Swing, Magneto's Magnetic Shockwave, Storm's Hailstorm, Sentinel's (Hyper) Sentinel Force and his normal mouth laser attack, Captain Commando's "CAPTAIN CORRIDOR", Mega Man's Hyper Adapter, Strider Hiryu's Gram, Vajra and Ouroboros (the latter not so much in MvC3), and Cable's (Hyper) Viper Beam. The third game gives more: Wolverine's Diving Kick, Dante's air S move (his Helm Breaker), Doom's Foot Dive and Hidden Missiles, Morrigan's Soul Fist and Astral Vision, Zero's Raikousen and Sougenmu, Deadpool's Happy-Happy Trigger and 4th Wall Crisis, Super-Skrull's Tenderizer and "INFERNOOOOOO!!", Amaterasu's Okami Shuffle, Dormammu's Power of the Creator/Destructor ("Power of the Power of the Power of the Power..."), MODOK's Analyze Cube and (Hyper) Psionic Blaster, Spencer's Bionic Lancer ("Bionic... AAAAAAARRRRM!!"), Phoenix's Dark Phoenix, Taskmaster's Legion Arrow, Akuma's Tatsumaki Zankukyaku, Phoenix Wright's "Objection!", his "blue finger" move in Turnabout Mode, and his strongest Limit Break Ace Attorney, Frank West's Survival Techniques hyper, Vergil's Spiral Swords hyper and Nemesis' Biohazard Rush hyper.
• Mega Man:
  • Zero of Mega Man X and Zero has the Z-Saber combo, consisting of three (in X8 it can be upgraded to five) slashes with his infamous Laser Blade. In the same series, Axl's Copy Shot could count as well.
  • Zero's dual-Z-Buster-then-Sword-Beam combo from X2, which made recurring appearances in X5 and X6, along with Zero 3 and ZX, if you count Omega. Curiously, you never quite have access to it when playing as Zero (the closest we ever got was X3, and even that was just a Z-Saber slash, with no sword beam).^note You finally can do it with the Model O in ZX.
  • And of course, Mega Man himself has his trusty old Mega Buster, which is his initial weapon in all of his games and serves him well through the entire game, since it has infinite energy, unlike his other weapons that he gains later.
• Liquid Snake from Metal Gear Solid favours a charging tackle during his Boss Battle. It makes a return during the first stage of the fight against Liquid Ocelot at the end of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.
• Metroid:
  • Samus has heaps of them: Missiles, Charge Shot, Screw Attack, Morph Ball, Shinespark, Ice Beam and the Hyper Beam which is the Finishing Move in Super Metroid. Over time, Samus's melee attacks and counters (likely based off her Super Smash Bros attacks) hasbecome prevalent in her games, especially Overblast and Lethal Strike which Metroid: Other M introduced which involves grabbing or mounting the opponent and shooting at point blank range with her Arm Cannon. Despite the controversial reception of Other M, Metroid: Samus Returns and Metroid Dread both brought the concept back with a similar, refined melee system with the aforementioned moves.
  • Ridley really, really loves grinding Samus across the walls he does in most of his 3D appearances and he also does it to you as a stage boss in Super Smash Bros Wii U/3DS except on the floor of the platform, not the walls. Ridley also uses his vicious serrated tail to stab Samus frequently. In Ridley's Super Smash Bros. Ultimate trailer he brutally takes down Mega Man and Link with the attack. Ridley's fire breath can be considered his Finishing Move.
• Monster Hunter:
  • Monster Hunter (2004):
    • The Rathian's tail backflip, which she will happily spam in order to poison unfortunate hunters.
    • The Plesioth's hipcheck, notorious for its disjointed hitbox in early Monster Hunter games.
  • Monster Hunter 3 (Tri): Qurupeco's monster call imitation, which can summon anything from the lowly Melynx to the standard Rathian to the dreaded Deviljho.
  • Monster Hunter Portable 3rd: The Brute Tigrex's super roar, infamous for being one of the few roars in the series that can damage hunters.
• From Mortal Kombat:
  • Scorpion's "Get over here!" spear attack.
  • Sub-Zero's freeze blast or slide kick. For Fatalites, there's his Spine Rip.
  • Liu Kang's Bicycle Kick and Dragon Fatality
  • Johnny Cage's nut punch, Shadow Orb, and Shadow Kick
  • Raiden's lightning and torpedo
  • Jax's Gotcha Grab and ground pound
  • Kano's Kano Ball
  • Sonya's Leg Grab
  • Sindel's scream
  • Kung Lao's spin and hat throw.
  • Shang Tsung's shapeshifting.
• In Nexus Clash, every class has a skill that the character gains for free upon selecting the class. For example, every Myrmidon has the Critical Hit skill, every Divine Herald learns Demon Tracker, and so on.
• In Pokémon, a good number of species or evolutionary lines have a signature move; however, in Pokémon terminology, 'signature move' actually refers to the Secret Art trope. Although this trope has its fair uses in other media (see the Anime/Manga section), the games avert it; no single moves (not even the Secret Art ones) were heavily associated with any Pokémon until Sun and Moon introduced Z-Moves, some of which were species-exclusive. In fact, Dark Void, a move ostensibly exclusive to Darkrai, was more commonly associated with Smeargle after a few terrifying showings in tournaments (at least until it was Nerfed to hell and back).
  • Gym Leaders play this straight though. All of them have a specific move all of their Pokémon know and give the TM for it after getting defeated.
• Punch-Out!!:
  • Bald Bull's Bull Charge, which he will repeat until he hits Little Mac or Mac successfully counters it.
  • Aran Ryan in his Wii incarnation has his cheating moves: the headbutt and his last-ditch whip glove. Both of which can also spell doom for him, as countering the former with a 3-Star Punch or the latter with any Star Punch will instantly KO him.
  • Mike Tyson's One-Hit Kill uppercut, which he uses exclsively for the first 90 seconds of the fight.
• Puyo Puyo' has Arle with Bayoen. Funnily enough, it started as a status move that forces an enemy to stall for a couple of turns, but it has then become her strongest attack, being the last spell used in her chains. It even serves as her Limit Break in Madou Monogatari.
• Resident Evil has quite a few especially in the lesser-Survival Horror titles in the series.
  • Albert Wesker's signature moves are the Neck Lift or when he's feeling brutal a clothesline into a slam and then a grind which Wesker does to Chris in Resident Evil 5's Lost In Nightmares DLC. In Dead by Daylight where Wesker appears as a killer, one of his attacks starts by lifting his victim up by the neck. There's also Wesker's "Cobra Strike" palm strike and the Flash Step that he does to dodge your bullets and other Speed Blitz moves, all of which made it into his Game-Breaker moveset in Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
  • Leon S. Kennedy's sigatures moves in Resident Evil 4 are the Roundhouse Kick and Suplex Finisher, Leon has further grapple attacks in Resident Evil 6 which are straight out of the WWE as well as an ax-kick as seen in Resident Evil: Vendetta.
  • Claire Redfield and Ada also has the Roundhouse Kick as their signature attacks, while Jill Valentine along with Ada employ the She-Fu style of combat employing some Flip Kicks. Jill in RE5 is a fan of the Cartwheel Kick along with Murderous Thighs. Sheva has a strong Back Kick.
  • Chris Redfield and Barry Burton just have a Strong Hook, fancy martial arts be damned. Though they do have body blows, tackles and headbutts in RE5 Mercenaries.
• Shin Megami Tensei and Persona:
  • Alice has her regularly possessing the destructive "Die For Me!" attack. She summons armies of corrupted Wonderland soldiers and has them skewering her enemies from the sky.
  • The equivalent Hama move ("Die For Me!" counts as Mudo) is "Samsara", traditionally possessed by Daisoujou. (A "daisoujou" is a Buddhist monk who opted to starve to death, drinking tea that contains small amounts of embalming fluid until his demise, thereby creating a "living Buddha".)
  • YHVH in Shin Megami Tensei II has his unnamed attack where he "let[s] out his voice" to One-Hit Kill a random target. In Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse, it gets an official name: Mouth of God.
  • Metatron has Fire of Sinai, a blast of Almighty-type holy fire.
  • Beelzebub has Death Flies, a swarm of, again, Almighty-type monstruous black flies that either fully devour you in one go or leave you heavily damaged.
  • Surt, the fire giant from Norse Mythology has his signature Fire spell Ragnarok. Sometimes, Loki, Thor and Odin join in the fun with Niflheim, Thunder Reign and Panta Rhei.
  • Mara and "Maralagidyne", a "Severe"-tier Fire spell that targets all enemies, is a play on its name, and is infamous for its Squicky animation.
  • Persona 2: Everyone and their dog. The entry for this trope in the page has thirty two names in it.
  • Persona 5 has at least one for each of its bosses, but special mention goes to the protagonist's Sinful Shell.
  • Nocturne:
    • Every Fiend has a signature move accessible only to themselves: Matador has Red Capote and Andalucia, Daisojou has Preach and Meditation, Hell Biker has Hell Exhaust and Hell Burner, White Rider has God's Bow, Red Rider has Terrorblade, Black Rider has Soul Divide, Pale Rider has Pestilence, the Harlot has Death Lust and Beast Roar and Trumpeter has Evil Melody and Holy Melody. Some of these, such as Andalucia and all of the Riders' moves, were restored in Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse after they were removed in Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey, and Meditation was renamed and given to all of the Fiends.
    • Other examples are Skadi (Earthquake), Amaterasu (Godly Light), Pazuzu (Wet Wind), Kurama Tengu (Starlight), Mada (Intoxicate), Valkyrie (Soul Recruit), Mithra (Death Pact), Kikuri-Hime (Maiden's Plea) and Dionysius (Wine Party).
    • On a different angle, many of the Hito-Shura's exclusive attacks (earned only through his Magatama and never seen on any demons) can be heavily associated with him. Highlights include Freikugel, Magma Axis, Deadly Fury and Gaea Rage. The last of this is one of the most significant to his appearances in other games, where it's a Total Party Kill move he'll use to instantly end the battle if you break the rules of his fight.
  • Many bosses have signature moves that are pretty relevant to the mythology behind them. Harihara has Chaturbuja, Vaikunta and Three Worlds (changed to Reincarnate in english), Brahman has Brahma Sutra and Izanami has Thousand Curses. For the Law and Chaos heroes, Jimenez and Zelenin have Left Hand and Right Hand respectively.
  • Belial has Sodom's Fire/Fire of Gomorrah, and Nebiros has Necromancy.
  • Lucifer has Evil Gleam/Shine, dealing heavy Almighty damage with a chance of Charm/Confuse in most of the games he appears in.
  • Shiva has Pralya, which either does severe Pierce damage to all enemies with a chance of Fear (Persona 3) or severe Physical damage to all enemies with a chance of a One-Hit Kill (Persona 4).
  • Mitra has Light of Order, a One-Hit Kill to a random demon. Ironically, his alignment is Dark-Chaos.
  • Asura has Asura Roga, which is his Hate Plague made into a battle ability and is a party-targeting spell that induces the Rage status.
  • Krishna in Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse has his two Magic Music skills: Venomous Raga which inflicts biological status effects and greatly reduces attack power and Dream Raga which inflicts mental status effects and greatly reduces defense. Neither of which lose their effectiveness when you get to fuse and use him.
  • Shin Megami Tensei V: Almost all the demons that are already on this page still have their unique skills if they are obtainable in this game, and a few of the new demons have unique skills as well. The final list runs rather long, as there are well over twenty of them in total, not including ones unique to the Nahobino.
  • From Digital Devil Saga, Jinana has Seraph Lore (massive Expel damage to everyone unless you block it), Bat has Zotzilaha Bane (Forced Transformation), Lupa has Pyriphlegethon (most powerful fire spell in the duology) and Angel has Reincarnation (massive Almighty damage).
• Specials from Skies of Arcadia — Vyse's Rain of Swords (specialized wind/electric spell), Aika's Lambda Burst, Fina's Lunar Blessing (regeneration), and so on.
• Sonic The Hedgehog:
  • Sonic has his trademark Spin Dash and Homing Attack. In games like Sonic Unleashed, Sonic Colors, and Sonic Generations, his "Sonic Boost" has become ubiquitous with him.
  • Shadow has Chaos Control and other Chaos-related moves.
• From the Soul series:
  • Would Sophitia's, erm, face-sitting throw count as the Never Live It Down version? (Her apologizing Groin Attack is a close second in this regard.)
  • Pretty much anything Ivy does counts, simply because she has a unique weapon and is pretty distracting as a fighter. If anything, her "Summon Suffering" may be Ivy's single one, because it's hard to pull off and, let's face it, looks awesome.
• From Street Fighter:
  • While both Ryu and Ken have Hadouken and Shoryuken, the Ryu uses the former more while Ken uses the latter more. In more recent times Ken also gets associated more with Hurricane Kick.
  • Guile and later Charlie have the Sonic Boom and the Flash Kick.
  • Chun-Li's lightning kick (Hyakuretsukyaku) and E. Honda's Hundred Hand Slap.
  • Sagat's Tiger Uppercut.
  • M. Bison's Psycho Crusher.
  • Zangief's Spinning Piledriver.
  • Akuma's Shun Goku Satsu.
  • Dhalsim's Yoga Fire and Yoga Flame.
• Mario and Luigi, of course, have their iconic Jumping move. Fireballs and spinning, as well.
  • The Mario Bros each have their own signature jumps, too. Mario's got the Wall Jump (though it's not unique to him); Luigi's got the Spring Jump and Scuttle Jump.
  • Bowser has his Fire Breath attack, and his Shockwave Stomp.
  • In some RPGs, mainly the Paper Mario games, Goombas have the "Headbonk" attack, which is adopted by the "Minion Quest" modes in the Mario & Luigi remakes, where it's the Goombas' main attack.
  • Many of the Koopa species enemies have the "shell spinning" attack, while used involuntarily in the platformers, it's their main attack in the RPGs. Most boss Koopas (mainly the Koopalings) use this as their Retaliation Mode.
  • Princess Peach has her floating move.
  • For Yoshi, it's the Flutter Jump. Egg Throwing is also a staple, but only in his own series.
  • The Koopalings have their magic blasts. Individually, Wendy has her energy rings, Lemmy has his bouncy balls and Ludwig is capable of a special homing magic blast and a Flutter Jump.
  • Wario's Dash Attack.
  • Waluigi has his Air Swimming, although he only uses that one in the Tennis sub-series.
  • And in Super Mario 3D World, Rosalina has the Spin Attack as hers.
• Falcon PUNCH! To the point that it's mentioned the Story Mode credits song of F-Zero GX and was actually used by Falcon in the Grand Finale of F-Zero: GP Legend.
  • Mario and Luigi's fireballs, Link's Spin Attack, Kirby's Inhale, and Sonic's Spin Dash, all mentioned below.
• From The Tale of ALLTYNEX:
  • Scorpio has its signature dual-laser sweep.
  • ZODIAC Virgo has two: The bullet maelstrom it unleashes to kill the Phoenix's pilot and the Wave-Motion Gun that covers the entire screen.
  • ZODIAC Libra's Apocalypse Buster, a massive beam fired from below.
• Genis Sage in Tales of Symphonia always uses Fireball in cutscenes, even after he has gained much stronger spells.
  • This is because due to the nature of the skill/spell learning system in the game, the only spell he is guaranteed to have at all points in the game is Fireball. If you're doing a very good Low-Level Run, for example, he might not have any of his other basic spells, and you can, if you learn all the spells of one type (Strike or Technical), switch quite a few, if not all, of his spells to the other type in as few as one battle, if you're up against a foe with enough HP to withstand casting their base spells multiple times (just forget all the spells you want to change before the battle, then start casting each element's base spells until he learns the more advanced versions).
  • Rita Mordio of Tales of Vesperia favors the same spell in cutscenes. Similarly, Yuri seems to prefer Azure Edge. Most artes in this game are Evolving Attacks that get better with continued use, so it does make some sense to pick a favorite move and stick with it. The rest of the party will call you on this, however.
• From Tekken:
  • Paul Phoenix's Burning Fist or Phoenix Smasher.
  • The Mishima style users' Spinning Demon or uppercut variants (particularly the Electric Wind God Fist).
  • Devil's Inferno and Devil Jin's Hellfire Blast (in other words, the third eye laser).
  • Law's Somersault Kick.
  • Nina and Anna's Blonde Bomb.
  • Steve's Spitfire.
  • Any of King's multi-hit throws that end in a Muscle Buster, which usually doubles as his Finishing Move.
  • Marduk's Double Leg Takedown, which King (above) decided to copy in his Tekken 7 ending as a tribute to him.
  • Jinpachi's Demon Inferno.
  • Bryan Fury's Mach Breaker punch. The intro for 6 highlights this as it has Bryan and Paul clashing with their signature punches fist-to-fist, resulting in a huge shockwave.
• Many Touhou Project characters have signature spell card attacks. Reimu has Fantasy Nature and/or Fantasy Seal, Marisa has Master Spark (which she stole from Yuuka and made her own), Cirno has Icicle Fall (Easy) and Perfect Freeze, Patchouli has Royal Flare, and so on. Some of these only come to light in the huge doujin side, such as Yukari's Mesh of Light and Darkness.
• From Undertale, Sans, the Final Boss of the genocide route has two: his powerful opening attack (which is done before your first turn, by the way), and his final special attack, which consists of doing nothing in hopes of boring you into a Rage Quit.
  • In fact, different bosses having "special attacks" is made mention of a few times before, most notably by Sans' brother Papyrus. He fails to use his special attack due to the Annoying Dog stealing it though.
  • Explicitly called special attacks aside, some monsters (mainly bosses) have the ability to change the color of your soul, altering its gameplay properties in some way. Each color and effect is unique to a certain one or two monsters (the skeleton bros turn the soul blue and make it affected by gravity, Muffet turns it purple and attaches it to strings to limit movement, and Undyne completely restricts movement by turning it green, which also gives it a shield). Mettaton's fight occasionally has the soul become yellow with a shooting mechanic, though as Alphys is the one who makes that happen, it's more of her Signature Move.
• So far, every Valkyrie in the Valkyrie Profile series can use Nibelung Valesti.
• World of Warcraft: Most class specializations have a single move that provides the focus of their move pool: Hunters, for example, have Aimed Shot, Kill Command, and Explosive Shot for Marksman, Beast Mastery, and Survival respectively.
• Yakuza: The Komaki School's signature technique is the Tiger Drop, a gut punch of devastating power.

Webcomics

• 8-Bit Theater's Black Mage and his Hadoken.
• Nuclear Dan from Another Gaming Comic loves to spam fireball when he can, not using it's long range even, just closing in and centering on himself.
• Who can forget Dominic Deegan's Spark and his enthusiastic "DEATH FROM ABOVE!", usable on everything from enemies to pies.
• In Drowtales, characters tend to have an affinity, a general sort of magic that their body or mind seems more attuned to. Several characters seem to have a signature spell as well:
  • Sil'lice: freeze an opponents blood while grabbing them, which apparently causes great pain.
  • Faen: empathic healing
  • Chiri: prophetic dreams
  • Ariel's is becoming merging her body with another object
  • Mel: shapeshifting into a demonic figure
• Early on in El Goonish Shive Elliot's was shown to be his Tamashii Gekido and Nanase's was her color clone technique.
• In Girl Genius, the Heterodynes have heterodyning. This is a real thing, and involves mixing sounds to cancel out distractions or produce entirely new notes, but the Heterodynes can do it instinctively, to the point that when Agatha started breaking through, her heterodyning was the first sign of it.
• The heroes of Guilded Age are seasoned adventurers who have mostly developed unique skills that set them apart from the common soldier.
  • Syr'nj is a Science Hero who supplements her fighting style with various devices and serums she apparently invented herself. Her most common weapon is a potent flashbang grenade.
  • Frigg Akerfeldt is a holy warrior, and while she prefers to just clobber things with her massive mace, her signature move involves imbuing her weapon with destructive holy energy that packs enough of a punch to shatter almost anything it comes into contact with.
  • E-Merl Danielssen is a mage who casts spells using specialized foci, and as such the magicks he can cast at all are drawn from a limited list. The one he uses most often is a nigh-impenetrable shield of wind which, in practice, can be compared to a very, very durable hamster ball.
  • Gravedust Deserthammer is a spirit mystic who fights with a bow and arrow. He imbues his arrows with the spirits of those departed seeking justice, which guides his arrows to strike true.
  • Penk can fight just fine with a mace, but as The Bard, his signature move involves a massive drum that produces powerful shockwaves via Gale-Force Sound.
  • Magda is a shaman of Tectonicus, and fights with spells of fire and lava. Her signature move involves conjuring massive hands from the earth to do anything from holding down foes to blocking attacks.
• Heartcore: Ame's signature spell is the "Devil Drive", a combination fire/dark spell that burns its victims and, in the event of a direct hit, causes immense pain and psychological torment.
• Jack Noir from Homestuck has the attack Red Miles, which causes branching red tendrils to extend from his hand and rip apart anything and everything it touches. The visuals are reminiscent of blood vessels forming, which is fitting given Jack's nature as the cancer infecting the kid's session
• Vaarsuvius from The Order of the Stick likes to Disintegrate those distracting monsters and use Explosive Runes on any opponent who can read.
  • Haley is big into sneak attacks, bitch! Meanwhile, early in Miko's run, Detect Evil was her signature ability, but it quickly shifted into three consecutive slash attacks.
  • Meteor Swarm has become Xykon's signature move. He killed Roy with one^note well, actually, he killed his zombie dragon that Roy was riding on, then the sudden stop at the end of the fall killed him, and almost killed Vaarsuvius and O-Chul with one.
• Rip Haywire: The eponymous hero uses the Megaton Punch as this.
• Tower of God: When he returned, Bam had mastered "Hwajeop Gongpasul◊" (Floral Butterfly Piercing Technique), a technique infamous for being used by those aligned to the criminal organization FUG. This gets him a bit of attention. Another signature move of Bam's is "Fast Skip", which enables him to freeze anyone that can move. However, since facing Mule Love, Bam's go-to technique is Blue Oar, a circular disc of blue shinsu that he rides to get around quickly.
  • Khun Ran has the Lightning Spear techniques, of which he has variations based on their relative power.
  • Urek Mazino also has "Supreme King's Scorching Fist of Death", a technique that is deemed legendary. Bam has also copied this technique but won't use it because he thinks the name is embarrassing...

Web Original

• Penny Arcade's D&D Podcast: A literal example with Jim's Magic Missile, which scorches out JIM when it hits.
• Atop the Fourth Wall: Linkara, are you a man?
• Kitboga, a scambaiter, has a tactica of pretending to redeem Google Play gift cards that scammers wanted using a fake Google Play store right before their very eyes. He's had to dial back on it due to concerns of it becoming recognizable, but when it works there's nothing quite like it for triggering pure scammer rage and screaming fits.
• In Magik Online anyone who gains the ability to harness Flux to use sorcery immediately gains a Lock. A special spell that is completely unique to the user; such as Network, Oversoul, Crimson Echoes, White Geist, Adamant, and so on.
• Marble Hornets seems to have the Head-Crushing Rock of Doom as used by Alex.
• The Odd One has a knack for nicknaming an otherwise almost mundane moves after several pro wrestling’s famous signature move like:
  • Sweet Chin Music (whenever Lee Sin ulted, whether it is played by him or other people does not matter)
  • The Stone Cold Stunner (whenever his opponents was stunned by Braum’s passive)
  • The Rock, The People’s Champ (Whenever he’s doing well on Malphite)
• The Slender Man Mythos in general seem to have Slendy doing a Quizzical Tilt at anything that he finds amusing or interesting.
• Whateley Universe: Chaka's own version of the Hadoken, the 'Chaka Chaka Bang Bang'. And Aquerna's signature move, which may or may not have a real name: 'Squirrel Scampers Over Tree'.

Western Animation

• Castlevania: Alucard's teleport attack◊.
• In "Zoom! Zoom! Zoom!" from the Netflix animated Llama Llama, Llama Llama's grandpa tells him that scooter racing is "all about confidence... and a signature move." He calls his the "Llama Drift," a slick spinning turn which he demonstrates to Llama confidently even with it having been 62 years since he himself was a scooter champion.
• ¡Mucha Lucha! is all about these. There are entire episodes dedicated to one character's signature move.
  • Despite each wrestler nominally having a particular "Signature Move", in practice basically all of the transformation moves they use (of which there are many) are unqiue to whoever uses them.
  • The Flea's signature move is said to be too disgusting to talk about, but most of his moves involve farting or other dirt-themed gimmicks.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Rainbow Dash and her Sonic Rainboom, aka the Orbital Friendship Cannon. From that same series, Twilight Sparkle and her Teleportation Spell, which is very advanced magic (she even does it in the opening!)
  • Telekinesis could also be this for Twilight Sparkle. Although it's very basic magic used by all unicorns, Twilight's potency with it is unequaled and she uses it constantly for absolutely everything, from holding a pen to transporting kaiju-sized giant bears. When in battle, her signature move is a purple blast of energy which she tends to spam a lot.
  • Fluttershy is known for The Stare.
  • Pinkie Pie has her Party Cannon.
  • Discord, whenever he uses his Reality Warper powers, tends to do so with a Badass Finger Snap.
• The Owl House
  • Hunter's signature move is Teleport Spam — when in combat, he rapidly warps to random spots around his opponent to strike at them with his staff. After his Heel–Face Turn, he starts using it to pull his friends out of danger, most notably during the fight against Belos.
  • Willow is first introduced using powerful, thorny vines as Combat Tentacles and continues to use them throughout the series.
  • Gus tends to favor making illusionary dopplegangers of himself in combat.
  • King's is his sonic shriek — he can launch a massive wave of sonic energy by screaming, which he uses to destroy structures and knock down enemies.
  • Starting with "Eclipse Lake," Amity begins to favor forming an Abomination as a Power Fist, even launching it as a ranged attack.
  • Over the course of season two, Luz get serious milage out of her Invisibility glyph combo.
• Transformers: Prime: Soundwave has the means to open groundbridge and spacebridge portals at will, and prefers to just teleport his problems to some desolate location out of his hair.
• Winx Club:
  • Bloom's is summoning a dragon made of fire around her. She usually launches the thing at whoever has managed to really piss her off — which happens when one of the villains has hurt one of her loved ones or when she's had enough of getting her ass handed to her. It's also a case of Evolving Attack as it's implied that, every time she uses this spell in a new transformation, it's stronger than her previous attempts. She's also combined this spell with other magical essences, including doing Convergence with the other Winx, to make it a Super Special Move. Her Fire Dragon is also versatile, as it has been used for purposes other than combat — in season four, she uses it to awe some humans into believing in magic and, in season five, to save a horse from a pretty nasty fall. For all of these reasons, Bloom is marketed as casting this spell on more than one occasion. Here's a fan compilation of all the times Bloom has summoned her Fire Dragon.
  • Flora's is summoning magical vines with which to ensnare her enemies. There's no official name for this spell as it either has several names or there are many different spells that generate the same effect. In any case, Flora creates vines first and almost reflexively whenever she's in battle. Her vines can also be used to contain stuff and give structural support. However, it's been noted that they are rather weak — it's not that hard to break out of them if trapped and every other spell dispels them.
  • Subverted with Stella's. Hers used to be a solar flare charged with her scepter. Like Flora's, Stella has used all kinds of names when casting it. Although in her case, it's likely they are different spells, it's just that she makes the same swinging movement when boosting them with her scepter. She eventually stops wielding her scepter altogether.
• All the Dragons in Xiaolin Showdown have signature moves once they become apprentices and then Wudai warriors:
  • Omi — Tsunami/Tornado Strike, Wudai Neptune Water
  • Clay — Seismic Kick, Wudai Earth Crater
  • Kimiko — Judolette Flip, Wudai Mars Fire
  • Raimundo — Typhoon Boom, Wudai Star Wind
  • All four — Dragon X Kumai Formation, Wudai Orion Formation
• Yang's Paws of Pain in Yin Yang Yo!.

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