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Basic Trope: The Sorting Algorithm of Evil demands that late-game enemies be more powerful than early-game ones, even when it's unrealistic or absurd.

  • Straight: The Elite Soldiers of Evulz encountered at level 1 are significantly weaker than the Cave Rats encountered at level 20.
  • Exaggerated:
    • The Final Boss, the Evulz Device, is talked about as the greatest weapon ever designed, a nightmare capable of winning wars against mighty empires and potentially obliterating worlds. The Superboss at the end of an optional tavern fighting league quest line, an ordinary human with a broken bottle, is far more dangerous in battle.
    • The player faces off against Evulz who is said to be so powerful that he could kill all of humanity if you fail to stop him. He is just the boss of the tutorial, and all the bosses and Mini-bosses that you face later are much stronger than him, including the optional ones.
  • Downplayed: The Elite Soldiers of Evulz encountered at level 1 pack a nasty hit, but their attacks are highly telegraphed and they're encountered one at a time. The Cave Rats encountered at level 20 are individually weaker, but much faster, harder to hit, and come in swarms that are much more dangerous than an Elite Soldier or two.
  • Justified:
  • Inverted: See "Averted".
  • Subverted: The Elite Soldiers encountered at Level 1 are holding back, withdrawing when they meet resistance to report that they've found The Chosen One. The next time you meet them at level 40, they're not screwing around; each one is a Boss in Mook's Clothing.
  • Double Subverted: ...but they can't hold a candle to the Angry Sewer Rats first met at level 60.
  • Parodied: The Brutal Bonus Level has a "soft and fluffy animals" theme.
  • Zig-Zagged: Angry Rats are intimidating at high levels, until you find their Weaksauce Weakness. Then they suddenly don't have that weakness anymore and you have to figure out if they have another. And so on.
  • Averted: Enemies are as powerful as you'd expect; at low levels, you encounter grunts and beasts, and after a certain point, you stop seeing "common" enemies at all in favor of demons, angels, and abominations.
  • Enforced: The developers thought it'd make for a good Running Gag.
  • Lampshaded: "Wow. If these rats were on our side, we'd have won this war."
  • Invoked: Tired of wasting soldiers against Hiro, Evulz releases an experimental Beneficial Disease upon the rat population of a cave that Hiro has to travel through. Though incompatible with humans, it's wildly successful at making the local wildlife a far greater threat.
  • Exploited: The Cave Rats are weaponized, released upon Evulz' army to devastating effect.
  • Defied: Evulz recognizes there are... issues with his training regime and the experimental super-serum he gives his soldiers when he hears they can't hold their own against rats. Enter the Actually Elite Soldiers, who can definitely handle a few tough rats.
  • Discussed: "If we're gonna face little mice somehow stronger than the last guys, I'm really gonna be pissed."
  • Conversed: "Wait, how does that make sense? How does the Angry Rat somehow have more health and damage than the Elite Soldiers I faced 20 levels ago?"
  • Implied: It's mentioned in a Noodle Incident about how one character narrowly avoided getting torn to shreds by a pack of Angry Rats, despite the character being clearly heavily armed and so should be capable of flattening the Rats instead.
  • Deconstructed: With the Rats being far more powerful than the Soldiers, the party is demoralized, since if a couple of rodents can tear them apart, how can they call themselves heroes?
  • Reconstructed: Seeing particularly strong Rats alerts the party that they aren't naturally this strong, and their will to fight is renewed due to now wanting to discover the source behind their power.
  • Played for Laughs: Bob, The Big Guy, boasts about how the Rats are weak... then promptly gets demolished and whines for backup.
  • Played for Drama: Similar to "Deconstructed".
  • Played for Horror: The Rats were tainted by a Leaking Can of Evil and have become incredibly monstrous and strong, yet it doesn't affect their physical appearance. The Eldritch Abomination that tainted them did this on purpose, so as to weaken foolhardy heroes and so leave them open to having their souls devoured.

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