Even in wide open worlds, there's nearly Everything Trying to Kill You and no one else.
Minecraft has its own page.
Terraria has its own page.
- Besiege:
- The Tolbrynd Halberdiers are the first Mooks to pose a significant threat to your contraption. They're quick, attack in swarms, will lop entire chunks off your contraption with one or two swings, and can easily survive several blows from blades, arrows, drills, and can even be run over by your contraption with no ill effect. Worse is they deliberately target wheels and wooden parts first, and will cripple your contraption in seconds and rip what's left to shreds if you let them. Pretty much the only effective means of dispatching them are bombs or flamethrowers, and even when set ablaze they'll continue to charge and attack you trying to light your contraption on fire before they die, so if you aren't building a flying contraption to kill them from above you'd better be running away like a coward saturating them with fire until they go down.
- The Valfrost Axeman takes everything that was said about the Tolbrynd Halberdier and ratchets it up several difficulties. And if that's not enough, now they throw their axes at you. These guys will basically chew up your contraption and spit it out in mere seconds. There basically is no safe way to engage these monsters, as fire-throwing and even flying contraptions struggle to get close enough to take them down before being smashed to absolute scrap, so now really the only reliable way to take them out is suicide tactics.
- The Special Forces soldiers in Dead Rising 1 are very tough for Mooks, requiring seven shotgun blasts to put down, immune to handgun fire and headshots, toted machine guns that stun locked and damage you which allowed the other soldiers to shoot you more, always came in groups, and were not stun locked when shot (quite annoying when trying to use their own assault rifles against them). When they show up, you better have the small chainsaw or sniper rifle, or you're in for a rude awakening.
- The "Gas Zombies" in Dead Rising 2 only miss sweeping the list by one factor — they can't take away levels. They have everything else. They can stun you. Their grapple attack has twice the reach of conventional zombies — and is undodgeable. They are everywhere, and you will not notice them among the mobs of zombies until they are right on top of you chewing your face off. They draw every other Gas Zombie within earshot when they attack. They can attack multiple times once they grab you, forcing you to consume healing items faster. They are twice as tough as normal zombies. They can charge right through mobs of zombies. Queens only stun them. Oh, and that stun attack? Has enough range to hit you before they enter camera view from behind. The game is 72 hours of zombie smashing, but once these bastards show up, the party is over. Notably, these ornery bastards wipe out entire platoons of soldiers, ones who are trained to eliminate conventional zombies with ease, in mere seconds, and the Phenotrans scientists actually had to develop the Blast Frequency Gun to protect themselves from these zombies, a weapon that only stuns regular zombies but wipes these things out by the dozens: even In-Universe they are recognized as Demonic Spiders.
- Grand Theft Auto:
- Grand Theft Auto 2 has the Scientists and Hare Krishna gangs, when their respect meter is at their lowest level, have them eventually be armed with Flamethrowers. If you've played later games in the series, you'll know that Video Game Flamethrowers Suck...right? Nope, they will hunt you down and turn your player character into burning cinders if you encroach their territory. For that reason, it's best to save the Redneck and Russian Mafia missions for last to avoid being killed while doing missions for them.
- Grand Theft Auto III has every gang pack a lot of heat, but the worst of them come from the mafia. After killing Salvatore, wandering into the Leone Mafia territory will cause them to shoot you on sight with shotguns. Shotguns in the game are capable of killing anyone in one or two shots and when you got several people with shotguns trying to kill you, it will take a miracle for you to get out unscathed. Driving in a car? Unless you're in a bulletproof vehicle (usually acquired by completing certain missions) or a Rhino, shotguns are so powerful that the mafia can almost make your car instantly explode in a few shots with their shotguns. If you're traveling on foot in their territory? Their shotguns can knock you down if you so much as get within a hair's breadth of their sights, and they'll continue doing it even after you get up and try to run away. Hope you weren't planning to do side missions after turning against the Mafia, especially if you're going for 100% Completion!
- Also from the same game, any enemy that carries an M-16. If you so much as walk into their line of sight, it's essentially instant death. Even with full armour and health, you have to pick them apart far away or face certain death.
- Grand Theft Auto: Vice City has the female-only gang that's only found in the first Counterfeiting mission. They're armed with shotguns that can knock Tommy down immediately in one shot.
- Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories has the Sharks gang, where once you draw their ire, they'll randomly show up in Gang Ranchers doing drive-bys against you. Their weapons are powerful enough to deplete your entire armor meter if they're accurate enough.
- In Grand Theft Auto V:
- The cougar makes its return from Red Dead Redemption, and while they aren't as hard to kill this time and will run away from you if you're in a vehicle, if you get attacked by one it's game over because an attack from them is now a guaranteed One-Hit Kill. Worse, you are virtually guaranteed to find them when playing the hunting mini-game, and you can't use the invincibility cheat in missions, so if you can't run away fast enough or kill them first (or climb on top of something) you will die. Your only hope is Trevor's special ability, assuming you can activate it before you're pounced on...
- Tiger sharks appear if you're on the edge of the map in the water. Unlike the cougars, which can be killed with a well-timed shotgun blast, your weaponry is limited in the water to a scant amount of melee weapons. A bite is all it takes to kill your character. They can be killed in a boat, but if you're deep underwater and they see you, you're likely dead.
- In Grand Theft Auto Online, the Oppressor Mk II can strike equal parts rage and fear into even veteran players. Rage at Rockstar Games for adding the damn thing to the game in the first place, and fear because it is a griefer's weapon for a reason. It is a flying, jet-powered motorcycle that can be equipped with machine guns (the default weapon), an explosive autocannon, or homing missiles, is fast enough to keep pace with almost any ground vehicle in the game while ignoring obstacles on the road (unlike the Rhino tank) while also being able to slow down and hover around its target rather than have to do flybys and turn around (unlike the various Cool Planes in the game), and its small size makes it extremely hard to hit from a distance (unlike attack helicopters and other weaponized Flying Cars like the Deluxo). What's more, it can launch flares or chaff as countermeasures against the homing launcher, the most powerful on-foot response to getting attacked with a flying vehicle like a jet or a helicopter. Your only chance comes down more to the stupidity of whoever's flying it than your own ability to fight back,note and a skilled pilot can instantly make your game a living hell and force you to enter either Passive Mode or your console's home menu. Rockstar did try to nerf it in 2022 by raising its price, reducing the accuracy of its missiles, and raising the cooldown time and reducing the number of uses for its countermeasures, but it's still an extremely potent vehicle.
- Grounded fittingly has literal spiders that are some of the toughest enemies in their respective tiers.
- Orb Weavers are similar to a Warm-Up Boss of the spider enemies, but are still very tough to take on before you reach the middle of the game. Every time they spot you, their shriek will cripple your move speed, preventing you from fleeing from them easily. Their attacks come out much faster than other early game bugs and their healthpool is quite beefy. Additionally, they will stalk you once you enter their territory, which can lead up to them ambushing you if you don't hear their quiet but distinct movement sounds. And outside of your initial spawn area, they're found everywhere.
- Wolf Spiders are the most infamous for embodying this trope (there's even an achievement for killing your first one!). Take everything about the Orb weaver, and give it even more health, more damage, the ability to ''jump ridiculous heights'' to reach players using ranged attacks hiding above them, and a debilitating poisonous bite. The poison in particular is extremely dangerous. While you can afford to not perfect block Orb Weavers just fine, failing to perfect block a Wolf Spider will cause its raw attack damage to be reduced, but it will still apply poison to damage you. Finally, their five hit combo comes out fast and is notorious for ripping apart new players in the span of seconds. While they're nocturnal, their patrol territory is massive, meaning at any moment, a Wolf Spider could be stalking you and you won't realize it till it's too late.
- Black Widows. "Legendary killer spider in classic black in red. Identifiable by the hourglass marking that indicates your time is at hand." They straddle the line between this trope and Boss in Mook's Clothing. They have a mountain of a health pool (even more than the game's first two bosses!), attack at blindingly quick speeds, can spawn widowlings, eat said widowlings to gain a buff that makes their attacks even faster AND grant health regeneration, and instead of poisoning you, they envenom you. And unlike poison, venom stacks and bypasses poison resistance. Even with fully upgraded tier 3 heavy armor, full health and some defensive buffs, they can kill you in less than five seconds.
- Hytale:
- Grizzly Bears in the early-game can nearly 2-shot an unarmored player (46 damage/hit), run fast enough to catch up with a sprinting player, and have a huge 124 HP. Your starting Crude weapons do less than adequate damage against one, meaning that the best way to deal with them in the early-game is to stay far and if spotted, run like hell. They have a relatively high spawn rate in forests (especially autumn forests), making entire sections danger zones for low-level players, especially if player spawn happens to be in a forest. Bears get less deadly once the player acquires copper-to-iron weapons and armor, but they can and will still hit hard.
- Magma Rhino Toads are the single deadliest enemy in the game for their level due to their very high HP (slightly more than a Grizzly Bear), extremely high damage, and spamming a tongue attack that throws you towards them which is highly disorienting, prevents easy escape, and is likely to throw you into a nearby lava lake. They also have a tendency to spawn in pairs, causing them to ping-pong the player between them for constant damage. All this makes Magma Rhino Toads downright brutal for an early-game enemy that can spawn in the deeper underground sections of Zone 1. The devs "buffed" it by giving it a leap charge attack... which ironically made it slightly less oppressive, as this caused it to perform the tongue attack less often.
- Mount & Blade, having dozens and dozens of possible units, was bound to have some of these. Just remember that a bit of recruiting savvy and training will have these fighting for your side.
- Khergit mounted archers (read:every single Khergit troop). Their horses are fast enough to let them run circles around almost everything in the game, and they will proceed to happily do exactly that, with added Rain of Arrows. They are, however, pretty trashy in sieges, as you can't ride a horse up a siege tower or ladder and they're less than optimal when dismounted.
- Vaegir Marksmen, the single best archers the game has. Pinpoint accuracy, enough draw strength to tear through half your healthbar in a single shot, and they like to aim for the head. Trying to assault a castle lined with these can end in your entire army getting shot down before the siege tower has even reached the castle.
- Rhodok Sharpshooters combine the strongest crossbow with one of the stronger bolts and some terrifyingly good aim. Surviving one of their shots is an impressive feat, and even then you won't get back up from the next one.
- Nord Huscarls, for their part, are the single best melee infantry unit the game has to offer. Trying to go axe-to-axe with them will get them to smack you for well over 40 damage a hit, trying to block their strikes with a shield will shred the shield and then kill you, trying to charge them on horseback will make them stick so tightly together they're worse than a stone wall and stop your horse, which will let you hack down both you and the horse at their leisure, and trying to shoot at them from afar will get them to draw out the throwing axes and nail you in the head with one.
- With Fire and Sword, one of the official expansions set in 17th century Europe adds Polish Winged Hussars to this list. They're damn near unkillable, taking several musket shots to take down, and they carry a gigantic lance, which combined with their Lightning Bruiser of a horse lets them spear your troops to death with ease. Killing the horse will not be enough to stop them from skewering your troops to death, either, so don't think you've solved that problem just by dismounting them.
- Early game Steppe and Desert Bandits, if you make a mistake of straying eastwards without a decent party you will find yourself facing 10 to 20 strong parties of mounted archers and lancers, and at that level they may as well be Swadian Knights for how much damage they do to you, bonus points, they are all mounted so good luck outrunning them.
- Palworld has quite a few of the eponymous mons and some of the human enemies that fit:
- Vanwyrm in the Bamboo Groves are very dangerous foes, especially if the player doesn't have heat-resistant armor. They're common encounters that attack you on sight, hit like trucksnote , put on constant pressure with fast-cooldown ranged moves, often appear in pairs, are tough to catch, and have a nasty tendency to set you on fire for massive damage over time. It doesn't help that a couple of the fast-travel points on the first island just so happen to be in or around the Bamboo Groves, meaning you can basically be spawn-camped by these things if you die and have to go back for your stuff or get sucker-punched as soon as you arrive.
- Robinquill is one of the tougher Pals in its habitat, is aggressive toward the player and is hard to catch, and has ludicrously powerful long-range attacks, including Seed Mine, which covers a large area with exploding seeds that can easily one-shot a player through shields due to hitting multiple times (while other Pals like Broncherry can learn Seed Mine as well, Robinquill is by far the most prolific user). If it doesn't kill you immediately, it has a tendency to leave you entangled and rendering you unable to run, jump, or dodge, so its next shot most likely will.
- Beegarde are fast and spawn in groups, and infamously have the powerful Suicide Attack Bee Quiet, which blows them up to inflict massive damage. Even when they're not exploding in your face, they spam Wind Cutter and Poison Blast, both of which have fast projectiles, very low cooldowns and a chance to inflict status effects, letting swarms of Beegarde chip players and their Pals to death very quickly. Finally, unlike the other exploding Pal Tocotoco, Beegarde move faster and aren't lower-leveled than other Pals in the area, making them harder to kill before they blow up on you.
- Prixter infests the northern beach of Sakurajima in large groups, can aggro and attack from very long range, and their Secret Art Upper Smash allows them to leap onto you at incredible speed while dealing a huge chunk of damage and inflicting poison. This move also ends with a Shoryuken, which means that it can still get you if you're flying too low. It doesn't help that everything except Kikit (and the rare Mimog) on that part of the island is hostile, meaning Prixter can often get the drop on you while you're distracted by Moonflower enemies, Beakon or Helzephyr Lux, and since Prixters are Dark-elemental, they will always be awake to harass you regardless of the time of day.
- Syndicate Grenadiers have a sizable Area of Effect attack telegraphed with a red circle indicating the blast radius, and if you or your pals don't book it out of there in time, their grenade explodes for massive damage. While the player is capable of dodging this (assuming they aren't in the middle of a firefight with the other thugs or even a wild Pal), most AI-controlled Pals aren't so lucky, often taking massive damage in the process. And heaven help you if they appear in a raid to deal huge area damage to your immobile structures and multiple base Pals.
- Syndicate Elites are an upgrade to the Grenadiers, attacking from long range with very powerful rocket launchers that can quickly kill you and your Pals with even a near miss. Unlike the Grenadiers, their attacks are not telegraphed, so your only warning that you're in their sights is a nearby explosion or a rocket flying past you. If you're lucky. More often than not, you'll only know that you're the target when you end up taking a rocket to the face. Expect several base Pals and structures to suffer heavily if they appear in a raid.
- Syndicate Crushers are giants wielding large miniguns. They can take a lot of punishment and dish out substantial amounts of damage thanks to their sheer rate of fire.
- Syndicate Veterans wield Grenade Launchers that are far more powerful than the hand grenades thrown by the Syndicate Grenadiers and their attacks are not telegraphed as the grenades detonate on impact. To top it off, they have significantly more health than the other Syndicate enemies.
- PAL Genetic Research Unit Executioners are better off avoided by unprepared players. They tend to spawn at higher levels than the Pals in their operating areas and hit stupidly hard with their laser rifles, always show up in squads, and tend to be more aggressive and more accurate than most human enemies.
- Brothers of the Eternal Pyre Martyrs are also tough enemies who appear in squads and pack flamethrowers with a surprisingly long range that will almost always set you on fire for extra damage.
- Moonflower Genins and Jonins in Sakurajima hit very hard and fast with their Flash Step sword attacks. The former appear in groups of 2-3, while the latter lead the former, appear at very high levels, sport a lot of HP and hit even harder. If you and your Pals lack a way to get off the ground quickly, you'll be chased down and shredded in seconds.
- The Anti-Air laser turrets on the Oil Rig are accurate, long-ranged, and have a high rate of fire. They also have a chance of stunning their targets and are powerful enough to kill even endgame level Pals in seconds. Thankfully, they will only target flyers.
- Pretty much everything on the northern shore of Feybreak (which is where you're most likely to make landfall) is out for your blood, but Gildane takes the cake due to having the hardest attacks to dodge in addition to being very common. Stone Beat and Rockburst both hurl giant rocks that stay airborne for a bit and can easily hit you on the way back down, and their Secret Art Crash Dash launches boulders to both sides while it charges you, making dodging much trickier.
- Feybreak Berserkers can take quite a beating before going down and are armed with homing missile launchers that can still seriously harm you or your Pals even if you avoid a direct hit thanks to their large blast radius.
- [PROTOTYPE] has several, but the prize goes to the Supersoldiers. Pretty much all of Alex's abilities are melee, and the Supersoldiers shine at this. If you attack them too much, they'll go into a blocking state where they're invincible. Hit them in this state, and they'll break into a combo which can beat off nearly half your health. Because of the button-mashing nature of attacking, you have to pay very close attention not to do this. They also love to grab you, which, should you fail to counter it, will also cost you half your health (though if you're lucky, they might use a less painful move). They can even grab you in mid-air, sometimes even in mid-kick, and ground slam you for, you guessed it, half your health. They can follow you anywhere, see through your disguise, and detect you at range (they're walking virus detectors). They are impossible to grab, except during the block state, and even then you can only flip them over. They also cannot be consumed, period, so all that health you lost trying to kill them is rewarded with a pittance.
- The lesser spiders are the Hunters, especially in the early stages of the game. If struck too much, they turn invincible and go into an attack frenzy, which can very quickly take a lot of health if you don't run from them. They can run faster than you can fully upgraded, and have a tackle move that, if it doesn't knock you down on the first try, allows them to turn on a dime for a second attempt (which probably won't miss). Much like Supersoldiers, they aren't fooled by your disguise (not that any disguise would matter to them), and will ignore all other targets to chase Alex. They take several hits with anything to kill, and often come in groups of three or more. Leader Hunters up the ante by almost constantly being in the "invincible attack" state. You actually have to wait them out, attack, then rinse and repeat.
- [PROTOTYPE 2] is arguably more forgiving in general. It isn't until the difficulty is set to Insane that Red Zone Strike Teams and mass rocket trooper squads become real bringers of pain. This is due to the various upgrades Heller can receive to compensate for less-than-immaculate evasive combat maneuvers. Also, most of the challenging enemies that are organic can be consumed once weakened, negating the attrition on the player's health bar. Depending on behavior, enemy Brawler packs can be this when they start continuously hurling debris at you from their spot instead of rushing to meet you. Juggernauts are definitely these when in a pair or more due to their aggressive and hard-hitting attacks in tandem with their high tendency to block a wide variety of attacks.
- Red Dead Redemption has the most infamous animal in any Rockstar-made game; the cougar. The cougar is faster than you, stronger than you, stealthier than you and has the ability to kill you in one or two attacks. Needless to say, they've become a Memetic Badass on GameFAQs.
- Saints Row 2:
- On Hardcore, mooks who frequently carry full-auto shotguns and RPGs can easily tank your health even with defense upgrades as well as one-shot you if you happen to be riding in a vehicle prone to exploding easily.
- You better beware pissing off the Stilwater Police Department all the way to five stars, as they will send out Tornado attack helicopters with homing missiles. These missiles can take out any vehicle with less armor than a Bear Awesome Personnel Carrier in two hits or less, can be aimed at a solitary individual running on the ground, and never miss. Oh, and since these are helicopters we're talking about, they'll usually be able to fire off at least one missile before you even manage to make visual contact with them, never mind bring them down (if you can bring them down). There's a reason why a clear majority of the missions named as the game's That One Level by players involve being attacked by Tornadoes.
- Saints Row: The Third:
- Brutes are massive footsoldiers that can soak up damage like a sponge and can punch tanks out of their way. The flamethrower variant is particularly nasty because catching fire makes you stagger around uncontrollably, opening you to continued attack from other mooks or for the Brute to close into melee, locking you into a Cycle of Hurting.note
- Morningstar Snipers. Not only are they incredibly hard to shake off (and can take over half your health in a single shot), but they're the only Specialists that use vehicles; in this case, an attack chopper. So unless you have a sniper rifle of your own, a rocket launcher, great aim with the explosive bullet .45 Shepards, or are hiding under an area with a good line of sight against their helicopter (such as the train tracks around Sunset Park near the Saints' Penthouse), you're pretty much a sitting duck.
- The Decker Specialists. While they have the lowest health of practically every enemy in the game, they make up for it with their Flash Step abilities, their ridiculous amount of damage and unlike the Morningstar and Luchadore specialists, they have a multitude of attacks such as a spinning attack from a certain other third-person shooter and their Shock Hammer which always ragdolls and hurts a player, regardless of upgrades. In http://deckers.die, they become even more frustrating by not only spawning in far greater numbers but combined with the effects in the level, such as forced lag, the specialists are known to wipe out players very easily, even when assisted by a co-op partner.
- The Luchadore Specialists are equipped with a grenade launcher that rapidly spits out a special type of grenade that causes you to stagger and get disorientated if you get caught in any of the explosions. Because they can spit out dozens of grenades at once, they can easily trap and kill you without you even giving you a chance to fight back. Even if you manage to kill them, their grenades can still go off and leave you vulnerable for other enemies to gang up on you. They also have high health, and like other specialists can't be used as human shields. Not helping matters is that, unlike the other two specialists, they're harder to pin down in a gunfight since they blend in with the rest of the generic-looking Luchadore grunts, meaning that actually finding and dealing with them often devolves to a little game of finding the explosive needle in a haystack.
- STAG in general. Their introductory mission, Gang Bang, is on the borderline of That One Level, especially in the final chase back to Saints HQ as their N-Forcers constantly fire upon your getaway car, and the F69-VTOL fighter jets and the Crusader tanks have sustained microwave beam weapons that constantly paint you or your car with damage.
- Stardew Valley has varying types of bat (and their upgraded, deceptively hitboxed Serpent forms) which can spawn on every floor of every dungeon, even if you've already killed everything on the floor, and combine just about every foe's strengths. They appear at random, usually in groups, automatically home in on you, and are not constrained by the walls of the level. They are also strong, can't be knocked back very far, and much faster than any other creature. For reference, there is one other foe that can go through walls — the ghosts of level 40 — and they only appear individually, do not spawn out of nowhere based on the RNG's whim, and are thrown far away by attacks (theirs or yours). Basically the only reason that Skull Cavern and miasma scenarios are so hard is that they're where and when the game feels like siccing five Serpents on you in a row note .
- State of Decay:
- Ferals are fast, hit hard, relentlessly pursue you, and have a One-Hit Kill move they can use if they down you. They can quickly kill lone survivors, especially if they get the drop on you at night: it's surprisingly easy to lose Marcus or Maya to a Feral on day one, and even in the late game they can blitz you and kill a survivor you may have expended a significant amount of effort and time leveling up.
- Army zombies. In Breakdown, they replace SWAT zombies as the armored freak, and are the remnants of the US Army unit sent into the valley. They run fast; leap far; have armor that tanks any bullet except incendiary shotgun rounds, even against the head; and in later levels become the most commonly encountered freak without question. The only way to deal with them without using the shotgun rounds is to melee attack them or use explosives, which becomes problematic when 8 to 10 of them are mixed in with a horde.
- State of Decay 2:
- Plague Ferals. Normal Ferals have been brought down a bit in this game: they no longer have an instant kill and can be brought down with a single headshot. Plague Ferals, on the other hand, have armor plating on their heads that needs three hits to break. Good luck getting off even one headshot before it closes the distance and rips into you. Worse, dodging isn't completely safe, as your survivor can still rack up Blood Plague just by being near a Plague Feral when it lunges. Finally, they can come in packs of three, which can swiftly run you down. It's easily the most dangerous enemy in the game, and the developers know it— which is why they only spawn in the Heartland campaign where they were introduced, and only on the highest difficulty (Lethal) during a normal game.
- Human enemies on Dread difficulty and above. They don't go down easily, they're accurate enough to headshot you several hundred feet away from their base, and hiding in vehicles is useless against them.
- Subnautica has its share of awful lifeforms, making exploration in certain biomes a nightmare.
- Warpers. They show up in pairs, use teamwork, can summon other dangerous creatures right on top of you, will teleport you around and scythe your health in half when you're up close, and perhaps worst of all they can simply yank you right out of the driver's seat of any vehicle and into open waters. Offense is not an option either, as they'll simply teleport away as soon as they're in danger. All you can do is run.
- Crabsquids, like most other creatures, really want a bite out of you. Like several creatures, they also think vehicles still look tasty or need to be evicted from their territory. Unlike any other creature, they also have an EMP blast that will wipe a whole chunk of energy out of any of your vehicles or bases, and disable them for a short, but crucial time. They are thankfully not that fast, but that doesn't mean much if your base is being besieged by an angry crabsquid and repeatedly EMP'd to hell.
- Leviathans in general probably qualify, if they don't simply count as "bosses" of some kind in a game where your offense is extremely limited. But if they qualify, none qualify more than the Reaper Leviathan. They may be the smallest hostile ones, but they are terribly aggressive, quick as lightning, and have a grappling attack that will incapacitate your non-Cyclops vehicles for a good while, flailing you around until it lets go or the vehicle shatters. Reapers can also chase you longer than any other Leviathan, having little in the way of special biome requirements or territory to defend, so getting one off your tail once spotted is an ordeal.