One solution against a HeavilyArmoredMook is to use an AntiArmor attack or ability to easily defeat them. Unlike ArmorPiercingAttack, this does not just bypass defenses, but it does more damage to units than if they ''weren't'' armored and [[CripplingOverspecialization are most likely impractical against anything else]]. In other words, where armor is normally an advantage, AntiArmor makes it into a disadvantage. There is some TruthInTelevision to this: RealLife armour-piercing rounds have a tendency to overpenetrate and thus deal less damage to unarmoured targets.

Examples include:
* Concussive shock wave that slams the subject around inside the armor instead of him simply being thrown back
* Being cooked alive inside heat-insulating carapace armor by [[FireBreathingWeapon flamethrowers]].
* Removing the armor off the Mook, ClothingDamage, or using TheNudifier.
* Striking at the gaps in the armor, usually after jumping on or swarming around the Mook.
* Using ElementalPowers such as SelectiveMagnetism and ExtraOreDinary to manipulate the armor.

Typically involves StuffBlowingUp. SubTrope of WeaponOfXSlaying. See also ArmorIsUseless. Compare AntiAir, AntiInfantry, AntiVehicle, and AntiCavalry.


[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' has heavy weapons like lascannons and missile launchers that hit hard enough to damage the heaviest of targets, as well as weapon types with special properties that make them particularly powerful against armored foes:
** Melta weapons, either guns or bombs, are short-ranged but intensely hot and are doubly-effective at penetrating a vehicle's armor.
** [[SpaceElves Eldar]] "lance" weapons, such as the [[GoodWeaponEvilWeapon Bright lance or Dark lance]], aren't quite as powerful as a conventional lascannon, but are so efficient that they make enemy armor above a certain thickness redundant. This means that lances have an easier time piercing the heaviest of enemy tanks, but aren't quite as lethal against light vehicles.
** Graviton weapons are ideal for taking down infantry in PoweredArmor, as they increase the target area's gravitational field so that affected foes are crushed by their own equipment - the heavier the armor they're wearing, the more liable they are to suffer fatal damage.

* ''Franchise/{{BIONICLE}}'': the ElementalPowers [[SelectiveMagnetism Magnetism]] and [[ExtraOreDinary Iron]] are effective against armor. For this reason, the Brotherhood of Makuta closely monitor Matoran of those elements, as all Makuta, except Miserix, are AnimatedArmor.

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/CompanyOfHeroes'': There are a few infantry units which by unit-type are much tougher than other infantry units. Universally, the way to get through that are tank rounds or [[KillItWithFire flamethrowers]].
* ''Franchise/FireEmblem'': [[CoolSword Armorslayers]], [[BladeOnAStick Heavy Spears]], and [[DropTheHammer Ham]][[AnAxeToGrind mers]] are effective against armored enemies, as are [[RoyalRapier Rapiers]] and other such [[HeroUnit Lord]]-exclusive weapons.
* ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar'': Units noted as being efficient against vehicles will do less damage against unarmored targets (though they may be able to cause {{Knockback}}).
* In the ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' series, the plasma pistol is considered one of the most useless weapons in multiplayer and the campaign unless you hold down the trigger to make a charged shot. If this charged shot hits the target, whether it's an alien or a Spartan, it will completely drain their protective [[DeflectorShields energy shields]], leaving them open to headshots from ballistic weapons. It will also disable the engine, though not the weapons, of any vehicle it hits.
* ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}} III'': the Fortified armor type is weakest against Siege attacks and resistant to all others. Heavy armor type (mostly having more innate armour value than other unit types) has no weakness except for Magic attacks.
* ''VideoGame/{{StarCraft II}}'': a variety of units have attacks that have a base damage and bonus damage versus certain armor class or other qualifiers like biological. Things that have bonuses against armored targets include the Protoss Stalkers and Immortals, the Terran Siege tanks and Marauders.
* ''VideoGame/WorldInConflict'' has Anti-Tank soldiers than can help crack buildings and land vehicles. They are liabilities against almost everything else, lacking a machine-gun like the Rifleman squad against infantry and being unable to attack air units.
* In ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChronicles'', lancers are soldiers carrying rocket launchers, which are so heavy that slows them, making them unpractical against other soldiers. However, they're the most useful units against tanks and other armored enemies.
* In the later ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}'' games, units can be given promotions that grant them an attack bonus against enemy armored units. Late-game units like the Anti-Tank Gun and Helicopter Gunship are dedicated anti-armor units, and have a 100% bonus against tnaks.
* In ''Franchise/MassEffect'', Garrus has [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Armor Piercing Ammo]]. Also, there are some attacks (Incinerate, Carnage) that qualify for this.
* ''VideoGame/EpicBattleFantasy 3'': the Tera Drill skill does more damage the more buffed the defense of the target.
* The ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' series has no straight examples, but the Dark-type strike "Punishment" inflicts greater damage in direct proportion to the number of {{Status Buff}}s the opponent has on them, including Defense and Special Defense.
* ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert2'': the German Tank Destroyer is useful against tanks, but too speicalized for anything else.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}} 2'' and ''Marathon Infinity'', the Zeus-Class Fusion Gun does extra damage against armored Pfhor, and they explode when killed with it. Described in-game as an upgraded model of the Mercury-Class Fusion Gun from ''Marathon 1'', specifically made to short-circuit the Pfhor hardware.
* ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' has a mechanic that fit this trope: the game's defences include armour and magic resistance for physical and magical damage respectively. The counters to it include flat and percentage reduction and penetration stats for both of the defences. As flat directly subtracts of the target's defences and commonly the most players will manage to get of flat armour and magic penetration is around 50 (possibly reducing armour by another 45 by an item and magic resistance by another 20 from an item) while armour and magic resistance on a player can easily rise above 200+ and 150+ if they build for it, flat penetration is better against targets with little to no defences, while the percentage armour and magic penetration items (which ignores 40% of your target's defence respective to the item) are AntiArmor that is more effective against targets which have more defences and less against those which have less. True damage also ignores your target's armour and magic resistance entirely, but is countered by (aside from a few examples) being a flat value that can be overcome by having more health instead. ''Annnnd'' high health can be countered by effects which cause attacks to do damage based off a percentage of the target's health, found in an item... the percentage being inefficient against targets which have a smaller health pool anyway.
* In ''VideoGame/DeusEx'', the shotgun can fire sabot rounds, which are far more effective against bots than buckshot; but buckshot is better against soft targets. That's besides the more explosive means of dealing with bots, like rockets or grenades.
* ''VideoGame/RagnarokOnline'' has the Ice Pick, a dagger-type weapon which not only completely bypasses an opponent's armor, but also does more damage the more heavily armored the opponent is.
** The Monk's Occult Impaction skill likewise deals higher damage to targets with high defense.
* ''VideoGame/PlantsVsZombies'': The Magnet-shroom can steal metal objects that would raise the defense of certain zombies.
* ''VideoGame/DoubleOhSevenFromRussiaWithLove'' has the occasional HeavilyArmoredMook armed with a heavy machine gun. Bond's solution is to [[ImprobableAimingSkills shoot off the straps holding the mook's armor on]].
* The ''[[VideoGame/{{X}} X-Universe]]'' series has [[RegeneratingShieldStaticHealth Regenerating Shields and Static Hull Integrity]]. Most weapons in the series do more damage to shields than armor since that's where most of most ships' {{hit point}}s are, but the [[ProudMerchantRace Teladi]]-designed Gauss cannon fares better against armor than any other weapon in the game. This becomes important in ''X3: Albion Prelude'' since every ship in the game received a major buff to armor.
* The aptly-named Armor Breaker Auto-Ability in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII2'' is this. Available only to Feral Pack Monsters in Commando role (most notably Chichu), the Ability increases the wielder's strength if the target's physical resistance is "Halved" or "Resistant". The boost is such that killing a target with such resistance can be done faster than against a target that does not have any resistance at all.
* The 3D ''[[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Legend of Zelda]]'' games require Link to remove the armor from [[BossInMookClothing Darknuts]] before he can kill them. For example, ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker Wind Waker]]'' forces him to remove the breastplate by getting behind the Darknut and slashing the straps, which can be done either with stealth or a parry attack, and the helmet requires a parry attack or the head.
* Gelyan's Armor Crusher in the flash turn-based strategy ''VideoGame/GeNeSis''. The higher the opponent's defense is, the more damage it deals.
* In the ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' games, most weapons with "pulse" in their name (pulse grenade, pulse gun) do little or no damage to most organic target but tremendous damage to robots and/or people wearing PowerArmor.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Wasteland 2}}'', most attacks have their damaged decreased if their armor penetration is lower than the enemy's armor level, but energy weapons work the other way: they do ''more'' damage the higher the enemy's armor value is. The reasoning given behind this is that more armor means more metal, so more of the weapon's energy is absorbed by the target.

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'': the Equalists use shock gloves to get around the armor of the [[ExtraOreDinary metalbending]] police. Their [[MiniMecha Mecha-Tanks]] also sweep them up and hold them in place with giant magnets.

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Jujitsu was invented in Japan so that samurai could fight with other heavily armored opponents in melee combat. The idea was that since melee weapons would be ineffective against armored opponents, the martial art used techniques that turns the opponents own weight against himself, and also used techniques that involved manipulation of locking techniques and pressure points to force the opponent into submission.
* Some anti-tank weapons don't penetrate armour but in instead rely on 'spalling', hitting the target hard enough to make pieces of the interior fly around and kill the crew. Most modern tanks are designed to prevent this though.
* Armor-piercing shells from the big-gun warship era during the first half of the 20th century qualify. The same projectile that's designed to punch through an opposing battleship's armor and go off inside might just as easily go all the way ''through'' a comparative "tin can" like a destroyer without so much as triggering its fuse. It would also have less explosive filler than a non-AP high explosive round, making it less useful for general bombardment purposes.
* The venerable [[ anti-tank rifle]] was born out of a need for weapons which would enable lightly-equipped infantry to take out attacking tanks on their own. Prior to their proliferation such units would have had to count on indirect artillery fire, which might be unavailable if the enemy had artillery superiority, or 'direct' artillery fire from a 'small' artillery piece that the infantry would have to lug around with them (disassembled or no). Most of them were developed just after WWI and some saw service during WWII, but against the much heavier armor of mid-late war tanks most were only effective at the worryingly short range of 50m ''or less''. Virtually all of them were out of service in their intended roles by the end of WWII, but some saw use as the first generation of [[ anti-materiel rifles]].
* A variety of weapons existed in the pre-gunpowder age for dealing with armor-clad soldiers and knights. Many of them were various types of [[DropTheHammer hammers]], which might have a head with a blunt end to bludgeon an opponent senseless with, and a spiked end to pierce through the armor once the enemy was on the ground.