Travel to Projectile

Imagine a Grappling-Hook Gun, only there's no actual grappling hook. Instead, the user fires some projectile at a target, and then be it by magic, tech, or otherwise, swooshes towards that target's position.

The technique often serves a dual purpose of mobility and offense, with both the projectile and the user travel having damaging properties, but this is not necessary for the trope to be in effect.

The projectile can be a lot of different items; swords or bladed weapons, grenades, talismans, usually something one-handed that's easy to toss.

The trope pops up often in video games, particularly action-oriented ones; having the game at a camera angle that allows you to aim it well is almost a design must. It occurs in first-person games, top-down MOBAs, third-person games with aiming systems, and so on.

Like other teleportation tropes, this can result in Tele-Frag.

If the projectile warps the target rather than the shooter, it's a Teleport Gun. If the projectile and the user move at the same time, it's Fastball Special.

Compare You Will Not Evade Me that's about manipulating an enemy's position to your favor rather than controlling yours. Compare Flash Step which doesn't require a projectile for a character to move.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Doraemon: One of the Gadget-of-the-week is the Moving Bow and Arrow, an arrow with a cord attached to the shooter and a circular target, where upon being fired the arrow (which appears to have anti-gravity functions) will carry the shooter automatically to where the target is located, regardless of size. Doraemon and Nobita had quite some fun zipping around the neighborhood and trolling their neighbors with it until a stray dog mistakes the target for a frisbee and drops it into a dirty river after playing with it — cue Nobita and Doraemon comically splashing into garbage-filled waters.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Ermes Costello's Stand Kiss allows her to create a duplicate of everything she attaches on of its stickers to. When removing the sticker the copy is automatically pulled to the original to recombine. By shooting the original and holding onto the copy she can achieve this effect. She uses it with a harpoon and bullets fired from a gun during the confrontation at the Kennedy Space Center.
• Naruto:
  • Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage, would frequently utilize the Flying Thunder God Technique, wich let him teleport to any spot he marked with a special formula. he frequently made use of special kunai that where pre-marked, letting him teleport to the kunai at any time. Minato used this for attack and defense, scattering the kunai throughout the battlefield to escape enemy attacks and teleport into enemy blind spots.
  • Sasuke's Amenotejikara technique lets him swap places with whatever his left eye is currently focused on. He most frequently uses his sword as the other object for this technique to avoid attacks and set traps for his enemies.

Fan Works

• Cor Autem Aurora: As per the source material, Noctis can teleport to the locations he tosses his weapons at. Seeing this, Kairi demands he teaches her how to do it with her Keyblade. Noctis at first is at a loss at how to explain the trick, but apparently it's based on the steps to create a barrier spell. He warns Kairi against using it too often because it's a massive energy drain.

Literature

• Mistborn: This is a trick sometimes performed by Allomancers who can burn iron, which allows them to telekinetically Pull on most metals. By launching a bit of metal (whether Allomantically or with a conventional projectile) that hooks into or behind a larger support object, they can create an ad-hoc grapple point to Lurch themselves at.

Live-Action TV

• In the opening of season 3 of Doom Patrol, Dorothy is forced to fight the Candlemaker. As her opening move, she fires an arrow at him, then teleports just in time to catch the arrow before it hits him, demonstrating to him that she does have enough power to hurt him, she's just not flaunting it in order to be polite.

Tabletop Games

• Hc Svnt Dracones: The Slingshunt rifle uses Pulse's experimental "slingshunt" teleportation technology to create a particle channel between the shooter and the target, and then teleport the shooter along that channel half a second later.
• Warhammer 40,000: The Orks use a weapon called the Shokk Attack Gun which creates a tunnel in the Warp that, in theory, sucks its Snotling ammunition into one end and spits it out at the other. However, Ork "teknology" is prone to malfunctioning due to its ramshackle nature, and one potential malfunction would cause the Mek wielding the gun to be fired through it instead. Older versions of the game's rules reflected this by giving the model a table of potential mishaps when rolling its shots. The aforementioned malfunction was represented by the Ork being placed at the location of the model it was targeting, and considering the gun had a 60" range in those rules, it could potentially move across nearly the entire tabletop in one go.
• Dungeons & Dragons: In the fifth edition, the Rogue subclass "Soulknife" has the unique ability to conjure a pair of psionic energy blades, and at level 9, the rogue can throw a blade and instantly teleport to its location.

Video Games

• A Boy and His Blob: The NES version has the ketchup jellybean. When thrown by the boy it makes the blob instantly appear where it landed.
• Apex Legends: Loba has the ability 'Burglar's Best Friend", in which she throws her Jump Drive Bracelet and can teleport to its location at any point in its trajectory.
• Assassin's Creed: Valhalla: In the "Dawn of Ragnarok" DLC, the Power of Jotunheim upgrade allows Havi to teleport via shooting at special portals with their arrows (and without spending the arrow).
• Awesomenauts: Nibbs' Orb of Omicron skill shoots out an interdimensional orb that bounces around the map. She can activate the skill to teleport to the orb's location.
• Axiom Verge has a drone launcher, and one of the upgrades teleports to the location of the drone.
• Dandara: The Displaced Presence, found at the top of the Ephemeral Station, is an orb that can bounce up to twice and teleports Dandara to any white surface it lands on.
• Devil May Cry: DmC reimagined Vergil's Trick teleport as one of these. Vergil's counterpart to Dante's Grappling-Hook Pistol form of the Rebellion involves him shooting out a Summoned Sword, which causes a teleport. Who gets teleported depends on whether it was the Demon or Angel version of Trick, with the former teleporting Vergil's target to him and the latter teleporting him to his target instead. This version of Trick was eventually implemented into the main series starting from Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition, although the mainline Vergil doesn't have the Demon version of Trick.
• Dungeon Fighter Online: The Rogue and Secret Agent both have a skill that involves throwing their daggers and kodachi, respectively, initially acting as a Precision-Guided Boomerang. Recasting the skill before its duration ends makes them Flash Step to their weapon no matter where they are in the room, catching it and deliver a finishing blow to their surroundings.
• Final Fantasy XV: Noctis's "Warp Strike" has him throw his equipped weapon at a target, then immediately teleport to its position so he can continue attacking up close. Not only that, but it also does more damage based on how far he can toss the weapon forward, saving him some time for finishing off enemies.
• Genshin Impact: Keqing's Elemental Skill "Stellar Restoration" has her toss a Lightning Stiletto to a direction. Pressing the Elemental Skill button again afterward will make her move at lightning speed towards where the stiletto landed, even in midair, and perform a quick lightning slash with her blade.
• God of War Ragnarök: Thor can bring himself to his hammer Mjölnir, which he demonstrates in his opening strike against Kratos, when it sends the former god of war flying across Midgard by his chin before Thor catches up to him, midflight, to growl to Kratos about the blood debt he owes him. Later Thor uses the same ability to traverse tall heights alongside Atreus.
• Guilty Gear:
  • Testament's "Grave Reaper" special from -STRIVE- sends a bloody skull projectile out, and wherever it ends, a tiny succubus will be left in its place. Testament then can use "Possession" to swap places with the succubus, allowing them to close distance after zoning out their opponent.
  • Venom has the ability to set pool ball projectiles onscreen, which he can then smack around with any of his attacks to send flying. However, he can also teleport to the location of these pool balls.
  • One of Bridget's staple techniques is "Rolling Movement," which allows her to fly across the screen towards wherever she's placed her yo-yo projectile. In -STRIVE- it's also an attack that sees her barreling into her opponents not unlike Blanka.
• Hades: The Eternal Spear's Aspect of Achilles allows Zagreus to throw the spear, then Flash Step to its location while dealing bonus damage.
• Half-Life's expansion, Opposing Force, added in the Barnacle (an enemy that anchors itself to ceilings like a Barnacle to grab prey with its tongues) as a weapon. It shoots a very long tongue with attaches to anything organic (be it the alien world's Meat Moss or enemies) and either yanks the player towards whatever it's attached to, or if the enemy's small enough, towards you. The player character uses the former for Jumping Puzzles or eating the faces of zombies.
• Heroes of the Storm:
  • Tyrael's ability "El'druin's Might" throws an image of his sword to the target location. He can reactive the ability to teleport to the sword. He can add additional effects to the teleport via talents, including one that deals Area of Effect damage around him after he teleports, and another that causes the teleport to create a small barrier in the area that enemies can't walk through.
  • Sylvanas' "Haunting Wave" summons a wave of banshees that fly in a straight line. She can reactive the ability to quickly dash to where the banshees currently are.
  • Maiev's "Spirit of Vengeance" creates a shadowy copy of her that flies outward then returns to the original cast position. While the spirit is active, she can use "Blink" to teleport to it.
  • Hanzo's level 20 talent "Play of the Game" turns his "Dragon's Arrow" heroic into a global teleport. At any time while the arrow is flying or for a brief window after it hits a hero, he can teleport to it then do a backflip away while launching a volley of arrows at any nearby enemies.
• The King of Fighters:
  • K' has his "Chain Drive" super introduced in KOF '99; he uses his sunglasses as a projectile, tossing them forward at his opponent. Then if it connects, he flash steps in front of his opponent and proceeds to beat the life out of them. Humorously enough, against an opponent with a quick Attack Reflector (such as Chizuru, Kula, or Rugal), his sunglasses can be thrown right back at him for a fair bit of damage.
  • Some characters' Climax Super Special Moves in The King of Fighters XV function like this as well. Most prominently Athena, Kyo, and Yashiro, all throw out a full-screen projectile on the startup of their Climax Supers. They too can be reflected by some characters (notably Ryuji Yamazaki) like with K' above.
• Kingdom Hearts III: Re𝄌Mind: Kairi can toss her Keyblade and teleport to its location while she is playable.
• League of Legends:
  • Akali's Shuriken Flip has her backflip while tossing a projectile at her target. Then by pressing the ability button again, she goes ninja running at it to deliver a swift kick. The ability's nature reinforces Akali's role as a hit-and-run assassin.
  • Lee Sin's Sonic Wave sends out a sound-based projectile that can damage enemies; recasting then sends him flying towards the target so he can follow up with a close-quarters beating, as a "Diver" champ like him is designed for.
  • Lissandra's Glacial Path sends out an icy claw that does some damage. Recasting the ability has Lissandra warp to the claw's current location, allowing her to better use her shorter-range abilities.
  • A cinematic variant occurs with Pantheon's ultimate, Grand Starfall. After targeting an area of the map, he throws his spear onto the point — from thousands of feet in the air, mind you — and then comes crashing down like a comet onto everything in the spear's area. What downplays this trope is that the spear toss is purely for spectacle; Pantheon's player is simply just clicking somewhere and then teleporting the character.
  • Vex's ultimate ability, Shadow Surge, fires a magical blast that damages the first enemy champion hit. Then once Vex casts the command again, she goes dashing toward that enemy for extra damage, and then time to lay down a full burst-damage combo.
• The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages: Unlike all other hookshot variants, the Switch Hook^note and its upgrade the Long Hook teleports Link and the target to each other's location.
• LittleBigPlanet: The third game introduces the Blink Ball, a power-up that shoot a ball that when interacting with a portal, it will teleport its user to the portal's location.
• Minecraft: When tossed at a location, the Ender Pearl will warp you right at the exact landing spot.
• Noita has the Teleport Bolt and Small Teleport Bolt.
• Olija: The legendary harpoon can be thrown at targets and you can teleport to the target.
• Overwatch: Sombra has the "Translocate" ability in which she throws her translocator and can teleport to its location at any point in its trajectory. She can use this to quickly traverse the map and get the jump on enemies, and follows a very distinct curve when thrown that helps her aim.
• Quake Champions and Quake Champions: Doom Edition: Ranger can teleport to any part of the arena by using his Dire Orb, which shoots an orb in a straight line which can be cancelled at any point, the result being Ranger getting teleported to his intended destination.
• Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice: Sekiro is equipped with "Loaded Shuriken" that he can toss out to damage at a distance. Then by clicking the ability's button again, he'll rush towards his target with a sword slash, making it so he's always encouraged to go face-to-face rather than keep pelting from afar.
• Sonic the Hedgehog (2006): Sonic's optional White Gem power has him throw the gem, and then flies straight towards wherever the gem lands—and the farther away the gem lands, the faster he flies towards it. It's very easy for Sonic to exploit these rules by overshooting the gem and blasting clear across the map.
• Street Fighter V: Vega's V-Trigger, "Bloody Kiss", has him throw a rose forward. If it hits his opponent, Vega will perform a multi-hitting slash attack in their wake, propping up his opponent for a juggle combo.
• Team Fortress 2: The Magic Spell Shadow Leap fires a smoke-like ball that teleports the caster to where it lands.
• Tekken 7:
  • Noctis appears as a Guest Fighter and brings the Warp Strike from his home game as a special move, granting an unorthodox form of mobility and offense for the series' fighters.
  • Kunimtsu II, the successor of the original from the first two games, has a new move that's essentially a better version of the above-mentioned Warp Strike, but with a more complex input (qcf+LP for her as opposed to just f+RP for Noctis) and the use of a much smaller and harder-to-see kunai instead of an entire sword.
• Terraria has the Hook of Dissonance. Unlike normal hooks, it doesn't pull the user to the attachment point, but rather teleports them to it. It doesn't allow you to pass through blocks^note if you throw the hook through a gap you can't fit, you'll end up right before that gap, but you can blink straight through enemies and projectiles, including falling sand and Moon Lord's Phantasmal Deathray.
• Under Night In-Birth: A Downplayed example: Hyde can fire his projectile, "Black Orbiter", and then immediately follow up with "Bend Sinister", a leaping slash that travels more or less the same range as the projectile.
• Unreal Tournament has the Translocator, which launches a beacon (with primary fire) that teleports the player on command (with alternate fire), but it may also be damaged by the enemy. Said module can be retrieved too, by using the primary fire after launching it. Unreal Tournament 2003 adds a charge count to prevent constant use, while Unreal Tournament 2004 increased said charge count and added a camera for quick surveillance before the users can teleport.
• Wonderland Adventures: The purple Blink Magic enables the player to fire a projectile at any unobstructed terrain, which will teleport the player to said location.

Web Animation

• Red vs. Blue: Zero: Phase can teleport to the location of her knife. She makes frequent use of this in combat, throwing her knife to reposition herself and quickly cover large distances.

Web Videos

• The enchanted dagger Whisper from Critical Role allows whoever throws it to meld into shadow and emerge within five feet of whatever creature it hits.
• Oxventure: Merilwen acquires a bow which teleports its user and one other person to the point its arrows land.

Western Animation

• Castlevania (2017): One of the toughest vampires in Season 4's final battle is a viking with two throwing axes and the ability to teleport to either of their locations at any time, requiring a great deal of coordination to take him down.
• In Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Leonardo unlocks the ability to teleport himself or anyone else to the location of one of his dual katanas after obtaining his Hamato Ninpo. He uses this to dodge the Shredder's attacks and tag Raph in during the final battle with the Shredder.
• In Infinity Train, The Cat launches some kind of magnetic whiffle ball onto the next train car that then drags her shuttle to it so she can get around the Infinity Train.

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