Dryer lint is great for starting a fire, birch bark will work anytime if finely shredded, pitch from a pine tree works good if mixed in. You can make a fire starting log by rolling up old newspaper into small logs and soak them in melted candle wax
The included survival guide is a very basic look at wilderness survival. While the included information is good, it left out one obvious thing: how the Gerber knife fits into the equation. For example, the section on fire starting offered no information on how to use the included fire starter. No mention was made of using the knife as a chopping tool or as a spear. This seems to be a glaring fault.
Smeader told her he was with three other teens, all friends of her son, who had wanted to play a joke on him by setting off the firework at his home. They had no idea they could start a fire, Smeader told her.
Action-Adventure Games
- The mecha combat action game Another Century's Episode 3 allows the player to unlock the Gotchko, a small, relatively basic unit from Overman King Gainer. It would seems like a bit of a joke character, or maybe just an affectionate inclusion to play to the fans of King Gainer... until you actually use it. The unit, with few or no upgrades, is one of the most powerful units in the game simply because of the ridiculous range and accuracy it has for its two weapons. It is restricted to ground stages, and cannot actually fly, but it doesn't need to. Seeing that Gotchko is Gain's unit of choice, this shouldn't be very surprising.
- Harley Quinn in Batman: Arkham Knight. She cannot reach all vantage points, she is constantly talking, she cannot take an enemy out without being heard. Yet, if she takes down 4 enemies in any way, she can go absolutely berserk, and can perform up to 4 instant takedowns. While Joker at least carried a gun, her gadgets consist of Snares made of confetti, Exploding Jack-in-a-boxes and laughing gas.
- The Binding of Isaac:
- The base game has ??? (aka Blue Baby), who cannot ever pick up Heart Containers and thus has to subsist entirely on Soul Hearts, and whose starting item allows him to poop on the floor once per room. However, the inability to carry red hearts has some interesting effects on certain items that require the player to be half a red heart to use (such as Whore of Babylon always being active, and the Polaroid shielding the player after every hit, and the Scapular making him effectively invincible if used with the Cursed Skull) that can make Blue Baby a potential powerhouse.
- Rebirth added an even bigger Joke Character The Lost, who's a true One-Hit-Point Wonder, in exchange for starting out with flight and free Devil Room items. He's even trickier to use, but the Devil Room item pool contains powerful items like Whore of Babylon (which again, is permanently activated) Brimstone and the Dead Cat (which gives you 9 extra lives without the health penalties, since you have no health to begin with,) and there are items that can shield you once per room without having to take damage. Afterbirth made him even more lethal with the ability to unlock one of the shield items after giving enough money to the machine at the end of Greed Mode.
- Risk of Rain Returns, remake of Risk of Rain, alongside one returning and two new characters, introduced a Secret Character, Robomando. This little guy is essentially worse Commando, with less damage and faceplant instead of dive. However, he is also quicker than all other survivors even without items, can change directions and retain moving speed while shooting, his secondary attack can stun and, as an absolute hell of a cherry on top: he has a hacking software that activate all chests and drones for free, regardless of stage. This means that, while other characters have to go around killing things to earn money for items, Robomando can zip straight through the chests and towards the teleporter. In a game where time is important, he's an absolute menace. Suffice to say, he's very well-hidden, to the point you'll probably have trouble finding him yourself.
Real-Time Strategy Games
- Strelets, the Russian unique skirmishers in Age of Empires III. Staggeringly weak attacks, low health, and generally regarded as a mere stepping stone to the more effective Musketeers, Halbardiers, and Russian cavalry, but given that Strelets cost 47 resources (compared to 100 for most infantry) and train nearly twice as fast, if you get a couple of the right upgrade cards you can drown your opponent with Strelets in Age 3.
- The Ottoman civilization looks like this on paper; they have a steady trickle of free settlers instead of being able to buy them as fast as they can produce the resources which chokes their early-game growth and they have access to all of one (slow and very expensive) infantry unit, but if they can survive the early game their artillery and elite cavalry can make the endgame very one-sided.
- The last leader pack released for Halo Wars 2 introduces Yapyap THE DESTROYER, a Grunt leader who may seem like a complete joke for plenty of reasons (and in a sense, he is), but he also has some powers that make him a viable leader to play, ranging from his unique "Cannon Fodder" unit, which are pathetically weak but don't cost any resources to make, to several powers such as being able to completely stop combat for several seconds and reducing the amount of veterancy the enemy gets from killing the player's units. Yapyap also has several unique units and the ability to train a maximum of three of his hero unit, the Goblin.
- In Total War: Warhammer many lords specialize in a certain kind of unit, with the starting quality of the unit and the extent of the buffs varying. A couple specialize in units that are typically garbage and buff them to ludicrous levels, turning what would be a weak army of Cannon Fodder into one capable of facing off against elite enemies.
- Grom the Paunch takes weak, cowardly goblins and turns them into heavily armored fearless warriors, whose attacks may still be relatively feeble but whose accuracy and sheer numbers turn the tide while his Power-Up Food grants them a shifting array of other abilities.
- Helman Ghorst gives zombies multiple huge increases to their survivability as well as impressive damage boosts, ensuring his shambling army of corpses will outlast and tear down enemies that usually cut through them easily.
Turn-Based Strategy Games
- The very first aircraft in Advanced Strategic Command, Zeppelin. It has fairly low ammo on all weapons and the second worst Armor after unarmed AWACS plane. It also has good View, so it can avoid being spotted too early by most units and use its advantages to the fullest. At High altitude it can fly with impunity over almost anyone, including Anti-Air trooper. It carries 6 infantry units and lands almost anywhere, so no need to use light Paratroopers, anything from mine-laying variety to snipers can be brought right to the target. 6x infantry of the right type can quickly destroy almost anything, especially supported by the same zeppelin that delivered them, and by breaking ammo and fuel supply may doom much more than they can kill directly. Oh, and Zeppelins are cheap. As is infantry.
- India's unique unit in Civilization IV, where others get Samurai or Keshiks or Navy SEALs, is the uncreatively-named Fast Worker, a replacement for the standard worker unit with an extra point of movement. This sounds pathetic at first glance; it's boosting a noncombat unit and it's not even boosting the thing that unit is supposed to be good at. But then you realize this means India's workers can now traverse difficult terrain without wasting their turns, form up into stacks more quickly, outrun non-cavalry enemy units, and move and start building on the same turn. And since it replaces the worker, it never goes obsolete, meaning it stays useful for the whole game. Sure, it's not a military unit, but you're playing as Gandhi (or Asoka); what did you expect?
- In Makai Kingdom, healers are largely worthless because their dependency on Resistance (which is the stat healing uses to determine effectiveness) means they can't fight effectively. Furthermore, once you get into the midgame, healing falls into disuse as a tactic in favor of just defeating enemies as fast as possible. Enter the syringe, a rare weapon you can't buy in the store... which not only can heal for free, but has damaging attacks, that are based on Resistance to boot! While absolutely no Game-Breaker (at this point, you'll likely have much more powerful damage dealers), the fact that they have all their ability based on one single stat makes them very efficient, as well as finally relevant again.
- In Phantom Brave, Marona is only really intended as a summoner for the more potent phantom combatants, and has weak stats and poor combat skills, aside from an affinity for healing and status magic. However, she does have the significant advantage of never leaving the field (every other phantom returns home after a number of turns), and a properly fusioned weapon can give her godlike stats. Further, there are weapons that utilize healing-based, damage-dealing attacks, such as vases. It's perfectly feasible to turn Marona into a one-girl army.
- The SD Gundam G Generation franchise lets players put any character they want into any mobile suit they want, which means plenty of characters who are supporting cast members and/or non-combatants in their home series can be this trope. But the queen of them all (pun not intended) would probably have to be Relena Peacecraft from Mobile Suit Gundam Wing; because she's an Actual Pacifist and political leader, her initial stats are all dismal except for her Leadership (which is usually the highest out of the entire Wing cast). However, her later-level stat gains are through the roof, meaning if you're willing to stick with her she can become a bona fide Lady of War. This actually makes Relena many players' preferred choice for power-leveling a new mobile suit, since she can more than cover for a starting MS's low stats.
- Claude in Super Heroine Chronicle is this who is also a representation of This Loser Is You. At low levels, he's quite pathetic with his walking range being only 3 tiles, his attacks are silly looking plus his accuracy is pretty low, and his main specialty is to heal and he's not even that great at it so why is he here? Those silly attacks? They can easily hurt an enemy stat gauge from full to almost nothing, allowing him to follow up on Soul Sympathy attacks, or he could also be used to support Soul Sympathy attacks from other heroines. His healing skill is the only skill that gives him 10 exp (unless he's healing a higher leveled ally or enemy) consistently. And when he finally does gain those levels, he could easily go farther with his walking distance. With a lot of patience (and we're talking about a long time of healing, ending turn and rinse and repeat), he could easily get to level 99, then end the battle and pump up his bonus stats from all that leveling to his attack. Watch as enemies can't hit him thanks to his high dodge rate, and he could literally be your One-Man Army. Of course, training him for that long is an absurd amount of time invested.
- Super Robot Wars :
- Boss Borot is Magikarp Power incarnate, especially once you could start upgrading attack damage. In Super Robot Wars Advance, the upgrade mechanics meant you could buff him up more than Shin Getter Freaking Robo. Super Robot Wars J also gives him the ability to heal units along with the long-running staple of resupplying units, and you get experience every time you heal someone. In Alpha Gaiden, once his will was high, just plant him in water and have him fight beam using enemies. They do 10 damage, HE kicks their ass. Also, if you buff his defense and HP, you can actually turn the Borot into a highly viable meat shield in J and W. Alpha 2 takes it a step further, with Boss getting his copilots Nuke and Mucha. Unlike in J, they start out with a pair of decent-ish seishin each, until they hit level 80. At which point Nuke starts throwing Exhaust for 10 SP and Alert for 5. Not only that, but in J and W, he can use a Self Destruct attack when you think he may be of no more use if he takes too much damage. Crank up the Spirit commands to max and watch the fireworks. And it only costs a measly 10 in cash to repair. Not only that, there is often a meme of him being the true hero of whatever game he is in with the Self Destruct attack his mech has.
- Super Robot Wars Compact series usually feature Leina Ashta of Gundam ZZ, Annoying Younger Sibling to Judou and Only Sane Man of the Shangri-La bunch, as a playable character. Lacking the abilities many MS pilots usually have, she's not a good pick for a Mobile Suit, but despite her low SP count and her tendency to draw critical hits (maybe a Shout-Out to her terrible luck in the series?), she is lethal in the right hands, as her stats are definitely not too shabby, and she has a pretty solid set of seishins. Put her in the Elmeth or the Alpha Aziel, and she will surprise you.
- Super Robot Wars 30 has Giant Sang Yung, a giant version of Sang Yung created by Princess Aska. It looks goofy and only has one, somewhat weak attack for a Secret Character. Then players start looking at GSY's other stats starting with its pilot whose ace bonus improves its attack power by 20% which is the same as Mazin Power and improved mobility, the mech is a 2L sized mech and Aska does have the Wall spirit command which reduces all damage done to it, making it a surprising tank and its one attack reduces enemy morale by 10, reducing their chances to use their mech abilities and attacks. Even its own weak attack can be improved by upgrading the weapon's attack or using the Extra Arms power part and GSY has at least three part slots to improve the mech and finally, it's a two-seater pilot with Sang Yung having access to some support spirit commands. Aska even has a cheap Daunt spirit command which means endgame enemies have their morale reduced all the way to 50, allowing the heavy hitting units deal a lot more damage than they should.