Teleport Spam

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    Nightcrawler is a *bamf* master.
    Does he have ATD, Attention Teleportation Disorder?
    —The Nostalgia Critic's review of Ganon from the Zelda TV show.

    A character with the power of teleportation milks it for all it's worth, and, in a fight, uses their power to constantly disappear and appear at will, hitting, running, and flanking without any effort at all and barely any threat of counterattack.

    Usually, a character like this is defeated in one of three ways. Disable their teleportation ability, trick them into trapping themselves, or give them a well-placed Offhand Backhand just as they come out of their teleport.

    A common tactic of video game bosses.

    Also can be done by fighters with Flash Step.

    Inertia Is a Cruel Mistress could help to stop it.

    Very likely to cause a Snap to the Side.

    Sometimes only antagonists can do this because of Villain Teleportation.

    Examples of Teleport Spam include:

    Anime and Manga

    • Any character who is described as being incredibly fast in Dragon Ball is generally going to be able to do this, though with Super Speed rather than teleportation, and this especially comes up with Cell, whose speed is a plot point several times. In most cases this is done by both combatants at the same time - when it is taken particularly far the result looks like nothing more than random shockwaves in the air.
      • Movie 6 is a more appropriate example, with Goku and Metal Cooler spamming the Instantaneous Movement technique against each other.
    • Aoi in Zettai Karen Children. It's amazing how often her ability gets neutralized somehow, whether through anti-ESPer devices or her opponents "predicting" her next move.
    • In Naruto, Haku does a variation of this, summoning a set of ice mirrors which allow him to instantly travel from one reflection to another.
      • In Kakashi Gaiden, the story bridging the part separated by the Time Skip, it's shown the Fourth Hokage had something called the "Flying Thunder God Technique", which uses Summon Magic to let him instantly teleport to any of a number of special seals he make. He attached a bunch of these to kunai, had his students throw them all around their enemies, and then he attacked them while teleporting from one to the other, killing off entire squadrons at once. Kakashi has also theorized that Tobi using a defensive version of this is what makes his completely untouchable; the idea is that he basically moves whatever body part (possibly even his entire body) to some remote location (namely another dimension) when being attacked.
        • In the anime, Tobi does a more typical sort of Teleport Spam (though it might have involve more burrowing than teleporting) to hold back Team Kakashi+Team 8, except he only faked like he was attacking. He quickly makes up the name "Whac-A-Mole Jutsu".
      • Rock Lee tends to do this when he drops his weights. No teleporting power, he's just that fast.
    • Darker than Black: The "catch the air" touch-attack battle between Hei and a teleporter Contractor is pretty fascinating. Although it helps that she could only teleport people, and not her clothes.
    • In Pokémon, Ash went to the Saffron gym and the Gym Leader Sabrina had an Abra that just kept doing this...until it evolved seconds later. The (re-)rematch had Kadabra use a flurry of Teleports yet again to dodge Pikachu's Thundershocks.
    • In Slayers, Mazoku sometimes use this technique, particularly Seigram (more so in the novels than the anime) and Kanzeil (more so in the anime than the novels). In the novels, it is noted that Seigram is a low-ranking mazoku, and would be easily destroyed by any high-level spell if any of them could actually hit him. In the anime, Kanzeil goes One-Winged Angel and starts giving out some absolutely ridiculous teleport spam, including sticking out of the gates separate parts of his body in different locations simultaneously.
      • This also seems to be Xellos's favorite way of fighting, too.
    • Shiner's main ability in Psyren. He pretty much crushes the Drifters by teleporting around, only to be stopped by Shao, who catches him mid-warp not once, but twice.
    • In Mahou Sensei Negima, Chao uses a time machine to teleport, making her one of the most dangerous combatants, as even expert fighters are incapable of hitting her. In order to counter it, Negi has to rig his own time machine in a similar fashion and pull a No, I Am Behind You.
    • Played with in "Jojo's Bizarre Adventure" in the villain Dio Brando. He appears to appear and disappear at will, but it turns out his power is far worse than that—he's stopping time for a few moments, an ability that makes him nearly invincible.
      • Diavolo also gets this trope in a sense, but only because he is erasing time for everyone else but him, which has the effect of causing every other natural matter to "teleport" too.
    • Deville of Huckebein from Magical Record Lyrical Nanoha Force. While the Nanoha series had teleport spells before, their casting time usually took too long for this trope to apply. Deville, however, is able to teleport in the heat of combat, letting him keep up with Fate.
    • Homura Akemi from Puella Magi Madoka Magica, which she uses to make lots of Big Damn Heroes moments. It's part of her power as a Time Master.
    • Aries Mu and Papillon Myu engage in this during their fight in Saint Seiya.
    • Much like the Dragon Ball example above, Soujiro Seta from Rurouni Kenshin is so unbeliavably fast that no one can follow his movements, though part of the trick is that his lack of emotions prevent his enemies from "sensing" his movements and position. In his top speed, he literally becomes invisible to the naked eye.
    • Sideways uses this in Transformers Cybertron. In one episode the Autobots manage to beat it by attaching the Mini-Con Safeguard to Sideways' back, allowing them to track Sideways and blast him on appearance. In another episode his reliance on this bites him in the aft. He sets the Atlantis' security system to block warping in order to prevent the humans and the Recon Mini-Con team from warp-dodging him. However, the group tricks him to a trash dump chute and drop him out... and since he set up the anti-warp field he can't get back aboard.

    Comic Books

    • The X-Men character Nightcrawler was fond of this tactic. In the comics, he could deck several opponents before the first hit the ground. In the second movie, he uses this technique to take out at least a dozen Secret Service agents, while scored to Mozart's Dies Irae. In Marvel Ultimate Alliance, one cut scene has Nightcrawler use this to defeat a bunch of Doom Bots. In fact, because of the somewhat stressful nature of his teleport, it's a viable tactic for him to simply grab an enemy and port a few times, leaving them exhausted or unconscious.
      • He leaves a layer of gas from the dimension he teleports to each time he does. In the movie example, one off-screen fight has him take out a moderate sized room filled with agents. When the door to that room is opened, it is seen that he had teleported so much that the midday, open window-shade room is now pitch black from the gas.
      • For several early story arcs of Excalibur, Nightcrawler was unable to use this tactic due to an injury he sustained prior to leaving the X-Men, which left him just as vulnerable to the strain of teleporting as a normal human would be. He could only handle about 1-2 teleports a day, and had to rely on his less famous powers (Spider-Man-like wallcrawling and agility)...until a fight with Doctor Doom accidentally cured him. Then it was back to teleport-spamming.
    • Wonder Man faced off against an opponent who, instead of simply teleporting, switched places with someone else. At the beginning of Operation: Galactic Storm, Wonder Man was assigned to protect Rick Jones. Captain Atlas, having just stolen Captain Marvel's Nega-Bands, accidentally discovered that knocking the bands together caused him to switch places with Rick. Atlas used this trick to keep Wonder Man from being able to attack at all, for fear of killing Rick. Wonder Man was able to figure out Atlas's timing.
    • Ambush Bug, an otherwise pathetic fighter, has this as his main ability. Problem is, he's very, very good.

    Film

    • Kirigi did this in Elektra.
    • In the movie Jumper, they do this a lot, sometimes to the point of knowing that they are just showing off.
    • Used by Nightcrawler in X2: X-Men United, obviously.
    • Deadpool in Wolverine.
      • As well as John Wraith. Deadpool did borrow it from him, after all. Which didn't help much when Victor figured out that he teleported in a predictable pattern, and got him to teleport into roughly the same area as Victor's claws, with predictable results.
    • The Lord Marshal uses a variation of this technique during the final duel in The Chronicles of Riddick. He splits in two, one being in the original spot, the other being wherever he wants to go, and then chooses on one or the other. In this case, he dies because he's caught by surprise mid-teleport and would be killed in either of the two locations.
    • The fifth, sixth, and seventh Harry Potter films have each featured fight sequences like this. In each case, it's the Death Eaters who do it, with their trademark black smoke.
    • Used to great effect by Azazel in X Men First Class. He's particularly fond of teleporting with someone several hundred feet into the air and then letting go... It also doesn't hurt that it runs in the family since Azazel is Nightcrawler's biological father
    • Jason Voorhees does this to Eva in Friday the 13 th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan, appearing in and out of her sight, making her unable to escape and in the end appears before her and strangles her.

    Literature

    • Short story Not a Prison Make by Joseph P. Martino. The natives of an alien planet have the ability to teleport at will. They use it to make guerrilla attacks against invading Earth troops, including suddenly appearing and attacking without warning.
    • In Brian Lumley's Necroscope novels, Harry Keogh tends to do this once he's learned now to access the Moebius Continuum.
    • In Reflex, the sequel to Jumper, David discovers he can teleport between two locations hundreds of times per second, a process he calls "Twinning" because he's essentially in two places at once.
    • Ghost!Dresden pulls this in Ghost Story on several occasions, beating up (temporarily, until like Victor above, they work out his timing). Since he is a Pop-Cultured Badass, he yells "BAMF!"
    • In a subversion, during one scene in The Wheel of Time Demandred and Cyndane realize they're being painted for bombardment as soon as they teleport onto the battlefield and are forced to teleport several more times before they're able to stand and fight.
      • Perrin and Slayer have a battle like this in Telaran'rhiod.
    • In The Thousandfold Thought, Kellhus devises a method of teleportation, likely impossible for lesser minds, and uses it in this way to curb stomp five Archmages of the Cishaurim.
    • Fletcher from Skulduggery Pleasant (said to be the last living Teleporter) has this as his favoured tactic once he's able to teleport more than a few feet. Typically, he'll teleport in increasingly effective weapons to strike an opponent with, before just teleporting away with them when they're sufficiently battered. Ironically, this arguably makes him the most effective combatant in the series despite being the least capable fighter, the weakest, and probably the most cowardly (which all also mean that a sufficiently prepared and powerful opponent doesn't have much trouble with him).
    • The characters in Harry Potter don't tend to Apparate in the midst of battle quite as often as do the other examples on this page. However, Fred and George take advantage of the spell as soon as they're legally able to. Contrasting them with an older brother, their mother says "Bill didn’t feel the need to Apparate every few feet!" (amusingly, two books previously they complained when their next oldest brother, Percy, also apperated down the stairs and the like just to show he could).
    • In The Grimnoir Chronicles, Faye is the most powerful Traveler that anyone has seen, and she has a knock-down, drag out teleport fight with an Imperium ninja.

    Live Action TV

    • Hiro Nakamura tends to fight like this on the (rare) occasions when he's not holding the Idiot Ball.
    • Kamen Rider Odin in Kamen Rider Ryuki favors this tactic above all else.
    • The Gold Ranger in Power Rangers Zeo.
    • In Sanctuary Adam Worth uses this against Magnus. Over the course of their battle she becomes much better at dealing with it and eventually manages to turn the power against him by damaging his protective gear just before he jumped.

    Tabletop RPG

    • Blink dogs in Dungeons & Dragons. Phase spiders, in another style—pop on the Prime behind someone, bite, dive back into Border Ethereal, move around, repeat.
      • And thus Blink spell, especially when uncontrollability was buffed away in D&D 3.
      • YMMV as to if once per 6 seconds counts as spammy enough.
      • D&D 3.5: Totemists and Swordsages.
        • 4th Edition: Teleportation has become much more abundant, arcanists gaining a whole host of options (such as the Arcane Wayfarer paragon path). However, Swordmages, (who specialize more in front-line combat) fit the trope best.
      • Inconstant Location psionic power from Complete Psionic, 3.5 edition.
      • Just about every fiend in 2nd Edition could teleport without error, including the endlessly-warring baatezu and tanar'ri. Some interesting articles were written about how these races build and defend fortresses from opponents who teleport at will.
      • There are two Prestige Classes and a feat in 3.5 that give you free attacks after you teleport, and teleportation powers that use all three major types of action each turn. Combine them, and you have Teleport Spam (usually referred to as "shadowpouncing").
    • One of the examples in the corebook of indie RPG Don't Rest Your Head described a character exploiting this tactic to win a gunfight. He ended up suffering temporary insanity due to using the power.
    • Most were-creatures from Werewolf: The Apocalypse can enter the Umbra nearly at will and usually enter combat with non-spiritual enemies by just popping into existence right next to them. Wererats in particular have adapted a few spirit gifts that let them enter the Umbra, step behind their enemy and exit it, allowing them to attack him from behind whenever they choose to. It's a little expensive to use for a whole combat, but a high-Gnosis high-Rage Ratkin can keep it up for a few attacks.
      • Werewolf: The Forsaken limits crossing the Gauntlet to whenever the characters are near a locus. However, certain werewolves (like Ithaeurs) have access to Gifts that allow them to jump across at will - and bring the rest of their pack along with them.
    • The Legend Game System's Shadow Blink feat enables this in exchange for a penalty to move speed.

    Video Games

    • In Achron Vecgir units tend to do this once they've been upgraded, which occurs automatically once you get Gate Tech.
    • The second boss battle against Bowser in Super Mario 64 involves this.
    • In Final Fantasy XII, there are the nightmares that teleport regularly, but the teleportation takes a long time. Due to the game's mechanics, this means that they will automatically not be affected by any attacks that had set up on them during this teleportation.
    • A monster in Minecraft called the Enderman has the ability to do this. Once it becomes aggressive, it can teleport away from your melee attacks, often appearing directly behind you. An extreme (and amusing) example happens when it rains; as water damages them, they will teleport madly around until they either die or happen upon a sheltered location. On the good side, this also renders them harmless as they will not attack.
    • Played straight in Final Fantasy Tactics where party members can equip a Move ability from the Time Mage called "Teleport", and the Ghost monsters come equipped with this. Teleporting is Exactly What It Says on the Tin, blinking across the battlefield while ignoring obstacles and elevation along the way (assuming you don't move too far or else it fails and you waste that turn's Move). Then there's That One Boss that has an upgraded variety that lets him teleport ANYWHERE without fail.
    • A defining characteristic of Masahiro Sakurai's videogame endbosses (and Capcom's sequels):
      • Nightmare in Kirby's Adventure
      • Marx in Kirby Super Star
      • Dark Mind in Kirby and The Amazing Mirror
      • Daroach and his dark form in Kirby Squeak Squad
      • Drawcia in Kirby Canvas Curse
      • Magolor and his EX form in Kirby's Return to Dream Land.
      • Tabuu from Super Smash Bros. Brawl. But he tends to teleport exactly four times in a row before attacking, so don't bother chasing him until then. In fact, chasing him is a relatively bad idea, as he'll sometimes use teleports that leave explosions behind.
      • Meta Knight could exploit his Dimensional Cape move for an infinitely long duration; a tactic deemed so completely broken that it has been banned in tournament play.
    • From Street Fighter, Dhalsim could teleport at will in all of his appearances after Classic and M.Bison could do the same in most of his.
      • Seth's teleport is copied from Dhalsim, with the mechanics of Bison's, which means there's 0 recovery time or lag once he reaches his destination, and he's completely invincible during it and just before he lands.
      • And then there's Pyron from some other fighting game that Capcom seems to have forgotten.
    • A proud tradition of Dr. Wily from Mega Man 4 and onwards.
    • Boomer Kuwanger from the original Mega Man Mega Man X likes to do this.
    • Noob/Smoke in Mortal Kombat: Deception can Teleport/Flank Attack as part of their combos, and are sometimes able to do this several times per combo as well as juggle the player back and forth for several hits, which make them, as a midboss, occasionally harder than even the final boss if the player isn't observant or good as avoiding combos, or just let themselves get hit at the wrong time.
      • Scorpion is also quite fond of teleport spamming.
      • In Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, Noob Saibot's teleport, alongside his smoke ball, is pretty much why he's a total Game Breaker.
      • And Motaro in Mortal Kombat 3.
      • Not to forget his predecesor, Kintaro in Mortal Kombat 2, who really loves to go around with his Teleport Stomp.
      • And in Mortal Kombat 9, roughly 1/3 of the entire cast have some form of teleportation. Expect to see this trope come into play alot if you play online.
    • The Stalker of Bloodline Champions has two abilities that may more be Flash Step (it's hard to tell), but when they use their ultimate causing their Deviate teleport ability to have it's Cooldown removed everytime you land a basic close-range attack, you're pretty much open to Teleport Spam.
    • MUGEN obviously has some of these, but the most ridiculous is a Naruto build who will use his teleport counter incessantly, making him impossible to pin down.
    • Spinal from the Killer Instinct series has this, called the Skeleport..
    • Used in the first Oracle fight of Fahrenheit (2005 video game).
    • "So zetta slow! So zetta slow! So zetta-- So zetta slow!" Or, if you prefer, Sho Minamimoto.
      • Konishi does a lot of this when you fight her, too. It's less annoying with her, though, despite being combined with Doppelganger Spin—she's not Taboo'd up and so goes down quicker, and her movements are fairly predictable: her shadow will always point out her location.
      • Neku can pull this off as well—there are several pins that grant teleportation abilities, and a few of them are even rechargeable.
      • Uzuki teleports around quite a bit, as well.
    • Gigan in the Godzilla fighting games.
    • Final Fantasy Tactics A2 has Magick Frenzy, which allows the user to cast any spell, then teleport to and attack every target hit by that spell. Lots of fun when combined with spells that hit every enemy target on the field.
      • Doubly so when combined with Dual Wield, giving each and every enemy two attacks in addition to the spell.
      • Triply so when you use it with a healing spell and dual wield weapons of an element that your entire team absorbs, healing them with the spell and then bashing them in the face for more healing.
    • A certain bespectacled boss in Resident Evil 5 enjoys doing this at short distances. Technically he's just dashing from spot to spot extremely fast, but it's functionally the same thing.
    • The much-reviled Chozo Ghosts in Metroid Prime pull this trick. Of course, with the X-Ray visor, you can catch them while they're teleporting... they're still only vulnerable to the weakest Beam, and they still all attack you at once.
      • At least the Power Beam's missile combo, the Super Missile, still counts as the same energy type as the weak Power Beam. One Super Missile and a charged shot is enough to finish off each ghost, and with the X-Ray visor you don't even need to change your aim between each hit.
      • Pirate Commandos tend to fill the same role, as do Warp Hounds, who can also scramble the visor. The Pirate Commander abuses his personal teleporter as much as possible, stopping only long enough to fire a couple shots or call in more Commandos who, as noted above, also teleport.
      • Chozo ghosts and Pirate Commandos (in Corruption) aren't actually teleporting, they're just making themselves invisible while moving around, which you can actually see them doing with the X-Ray Visor. Dark Pirate Commandos, however, are actually going into another dimension and then coming back out after moving, which, like the former two enemies, can be monitored except with the Dark Visor. Since the latter are actually moving into another dimension, though, I think it may count as teleportation in their case.
      • Several bosses do this as well. Dark Samus, most notably, zips around the room more and more as it takes damage. Gets very frustrating at the end, when you can't even lock onto it except when it's attacking, which also renders it invulnerable.
    • The Assassins in Iji.
      • VERY specially Assassin Asha, when you fight with him the screen is full of little flashes because of this, he teleports like 10 times a second. What's more, he teleports plasma pistols into his hand so he can rapid-fire at you.
    • In Seiken Densetsu 3, Koren uses this to mess with Duran's head both at the beginning of Duran's story, and later when Koren attacks Forcena again.
    • The protagonist from the Xbox 360 game The Dishwasher can do this when he's equipped with the Shift Blade: one flick of the right analogue stick will teleport you a short distance in that direction instantly. The ability is usable again almost instantly, so you can teleport around recklessly if you want.
    • Ganon in The Legend of Zelda, which carried over into the Zelda cartoon.
      • In Zelda II the Adventure of Link, the Wizzrobe Boss is EASY, if you have the Mirror spell: Cast before entering, stand on the left side, crouch, and wait.
      • He also does this in The Legend of Zelda a Link To T He Past, only with a set pattern. Midway through the fight he'll begin a 'teleporting season' where he doesn't stop, even to attack.
      • The main battle tactic of Wizzrobes is pop up (on one of many teleport pads) and throw a fireball at Link.
      • Zant from Twilight Princess has this property. He uses attacks that wouldn't be troublesome, except that he always uses them after teleporting right behind you.
        • Zant's Teleport Spam becomes more and more frantic as the fight progresses. He starts off without even using Teleport Spam, but by teleporting himself and Link to previous boss arenas to replicate those boss' tactics (and weaknesses). The Teleport Spam begins when Zant attempts his own crude fighting style and starts off teleporting fairly liberally, which allows Link to usually get a hit in before Zant vanishes. By the end of the fight, Zant is on full-on Villainous Breakdown, basically wildly swinging his sword and warping away before Link can react.
    • Anubis from Zone of the Enders is nearly invincible because his Zero Shift technique can move him out of the way of almost any of your attacks. A good chunk of the second game has you getting Jehuty's equivalent just so you can fight on even terms.
      • For the last boss fight, you can both do this. Since Zone of the Enders is already a seizure-inducingly fast-paced game, adding Teleport Spam makes the entire final battle a frantic, chaotic slugfest that can sometimes be very difficult to follow. This is either completely awesome or frustratingly annoying, depending on the player.
    • The second boss, Screamer, in House of the Dead: Overkill. Infuriatingly, you only get a shot at her every few seconds, and she either Teleport Spams or does a Doppelganger Spin each time. If you don't do enough damage to her during that short time, it won't "take," and you'll have to shake her off to keep her from hurting you.
    • Several Psychic- and Ghost-type Pokemon from the Pokémon Ranger games do this, making it harder for you to capture them.
    • A good number of Organization XIII members can do this, but Larxene is the one that really makes an art of it. One of her sleights in the original Chain of Memories is even called "Teleport Rush."
      • Aqua's Ghost Drive style has tons of after images but they're magically generated illusions rather than pure speed or teleportation. There's also the Time Splicer technique she and Ventus can use, in which they cast Stop on enemies before warping around the field and doing a series of slashes. It ends with a Delayed Effect after Stop wears off.
      • Braig likes to do this as well. Depending on what attacks you equip, this can lead to what seems like a Teleport Duel between him and Aqua.
        • |Hades does this a lot too. Combined with being invincible half the time, it's pretty annoying.
      • Sora himself does a interesting version of this when preforming Strike Raid, Instead of teleporting himself he repeatedly teleports his Keyblade after throwing it, allowing him to throw again very rapidly.
      • The two Bonus Bosses of Birth By Sleep, Vanitas Sentiment and the Unknown, abuse this to all it's worth.
      • Part of what makes Riku's Dark Aura so frighteningly effective.
    • Tsoo Sorcerers in City of Heroes, with the additional nuisance of being able to heal their allies. Rikti Headmen and Malta Gunslingers can also teleport, and are very annoying about it. The teleport's long animation makes it somewhat less of a danger though.
      • Don't forget the Sky Raider Porters.
      • Thankfully, even after they teleport, your target stays on them, so it becomes more a game of hide and seek than a threat.
    • D'sparil, the final boss of Heretic does this when heavily damaged. Moreover, when he teleports, he summons a few of his disciples. He even plays the sounds at full volume without stereo, so you can't tell where he teleported.
    • The Patriarch in Killing Floor has a variation of this. When he's injured enough, he will kneel down, turn invisible, and run away to heal. This lasts about a minute, and as your squadron is nervously waiting out the eye of the storm, he will almost certainly appear directly behind you, minigun a-blazing.
    • In the Unreal series, in game modes where players get the Translocator, all the players can do this. Players who manage to master the sequence of "launch translocator, teleport to it, repeat" can move across the map much faster.
      • This was abused so much with "telespamming" teams using a one-button macro to launch, teleport and re-aim with no downside that from 2003 onwards a cooldown was added to the Translocator. It's still spammable, but you actually have to exist for a couple of seconds before teleporting again.
    • Phoenix Magnion in Mega Man Zero 2. Attack him when he's not attacking, and he'll teleport and proceed to attack swiftly. That and a few other factors make him a real pain.
    • Nightcrawler in X-Men Legends 1 and 2 and other video games, and Deadpool in Legends 2 and Marvel Ultimate Alliance.
      • In Legends 2, there is a glitch that allows Nightcrawler to use Teleport Frenzy - the embodiment of this trope - with an energy cost of ZERO, provided that absolutely no points are put into the weaker Teleport Attack whatsoever. This is a great way to clear the room while conserving energy (as well as embody this trope even further).
      • In X-Men Next Dimension, Nightcrawler can do this to set up throws and combos with his tail or rapier.
      • Deadpool, being, well, Deadpool, does it with katanas.
        • And in the sequel, with grenades.
    • The Keepers of the Sphere in Prey use this tactic, Thinking Up Portals and using them to flank you all the time. Coupled with their Deflector Shields and Mind Over Matter abilities, they can get very annoying.
    • In Star Control 2 the Arilou Lalee'lay Skiff can randomly teleport around the battle space. Unfortunately, it's random, so there's a chance of it putting you right in the enemies sights. Or inside a planet.
    • Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia has Barlowe pull one as a desperation attack: he'll teleport throwing a flaming punch at you which sends you flying. Then he uses another from the opposite direction while you're still recovering. It can hit up to five times, and it hurts. It also doubles as a Punctuated Pounding.
    • Brain Powerds and Antibodies do this as a matter of regular movement in both Another Century's Episode and Super Robot Wars. This can make them infuriating to hit.
    • Alpha-152 from Dead or Alive 4. Goddamn.
    • Diablo II. In the most extreme cases, a player controlled Sorceress may be teleporting about 3.5 times per second in combat (3.1 being the norm).
      • Don't forget the Act V imps. Sure they were easy meat for your Hammerdin, but god forbid you tried to go through as a melee spec.
      • And with the addition of the Enigma runeword, ANYONE, not just Sorceresses, can use Teleport. Yes, even Hammerdins.
      • Diablo 1 has those wacky teleporting mages.
    • In Warcraft, the Night Elven Warden hero can do this.
    • The Prince of Persia, in the first title of the Sands of Time trilogy, had a Limit Break power that made him look as if he was doing this. It was Too Cool to Live, however, as it disappeared from his repertoire in the subsequent installments.
    • BlazBlue's insane Eldritch Abomination, Arakune, has a teleport instead of a dash. Expect lots of teleport spam fighting him in online versus. Hatred.
      • Game Breaker Nu and her nerfed sister Lambda also have a teleport move.
    • Devil May Cry 4 features Blitz, one of those enemies that routinely provides more challenge than any other non-boss enemy. Made of lightning, constantly zapping around the arena, only vulnerable to attack when attacking and worst of all, the fact that it's electrified means it's immune to all of your melee attacks. Great fun.
    • Most of Chipp's moveset, especially his super.
    • A SNES game by the name of Super Godzilla had Mechagodzilla use this as his melee attack; get too close to him, and he'd do a sort of teleporting body slam to hit you three times, back to the far corner of the screen.
    • Tales of Hearts: Shine, my spiria!
    • Jasper Batt Jr. of No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle will use this to make your life hell.
      • In the first game, Shinobu does this if she scores a hit with the "super" Gentoken (seen when she Turns Red); likely resulting in death for Travis.
    • In Ninja Gaiden II, the 360 one, some of Ryu's Spam Attack Ultimate Techniques have been upgraded to have him teleport during the executions.
    • Most Descent bosses do this. Sometimes they will momentarily teleport near you, launch a Macross Missile Massacre, then instantly teleport away.
    • In Alien Soldier, the main character has this ability. At full health, he turns into a phoenix that burns through everything in his path.
    • Shaco in League of Legends has a combination of teleport and invisibility that empowers his next attack to do bonus damage and an additional bonus on a backstab. It has a very short cooldown and the enemy player will use it when you're about to kill him, only to reappear behind you and shove a dagger into your back.
      • Kassadin, whose teleport does damage if he appears near the target and has a four second cooldown on maximum level.
      • Ezreal as well. After teleporting a short distance, he fires energy at the nearest enemy (within a short range, at least)
    • As mentioned in the Tabletop Games section above, Phase Spiders in the old SSI Gold Box series did this; after attacking they were untouchable for the remainder of the round.
    • When you fight The Doctor in Cave Story, he will teleport after every attack. Plus, his attacks also absorb your own attacks, making him more annoying.
    • Being a Diablolike, Torchlight lets the resident magic caster teleport. and since it also does damage, spamming Ember Phase is good for either getting in or out of mobs.
    • Blackhorn, the Big Bad of Astyanax, teleports frequently. Whether he follows up with a sword attack or a magic spell depends on how far he is from you when he reappears.
    • The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers SNES game featured the second boss doing this for his second phase.
    • Darm, the Big Bad of Ys Book I and II.
      • Chester in Ys 3: Oath in Felghana, accompanied by the "Whoosh!", and boy does he love spamming that move when he Turns Red, especially the 2nd time you fight him.
    • The Big Bad in Beyond Good and Evil does this as the final phase of his attacks. It's not helped by the fact that the movement controls are all back to front, as a result of his Mind Control.
    • The Dragon Ninja in An Untitled Story moves around only by teleporting. The second encounter with him spices this Up to Eleven.
    • In Egoboo, this is a favored strategy of warlocks and liches.
    • Liches do this in Nethack, as well as the various Demon Princes, and the Wizard of Yendor. Asmodeus is probably the worst about it, everyone else will hang around to beat on you for a little bit, but he'll run like hell after 1 shot.
    • Many of the major bosses in Tales of Symphonia, including Yggdrasill, have this ability.
    • Reimu Hakurei and Yukari Yakumo of Touhou Project, as seen in the Fighting Game spin-offs where both of them have attacks that cause them to disappear and then reappear attacking their opponent. Reimu is a standard teleporter, while Yukari uses portals.
      • More common and straighter example is Sakuya in the fighting games, as her teleport is easier and less energy expensive.
    • In Custom Robo the "Strike Vanisher" line has a special ability that it vanishes during an airdash. Most AI fighters can't figure out how to deal with spaming this, but careless use is a good way to die against human players.
    • In the Bleach fighting games on Nintendo DS, everyone has a Flash Step, and some characters have special move that allow them to teleport. The most prominent example of this is Kenpachi, who has an attack that allows him to quickly close the distance between him and his opponent. As a bonus, the move has an invincibility frame that ends after the teleport animation is finished, which can be cancelled into a Flash Step or another teleport attack over and over for near-complete invulnerability.
    • The final boss of Killzone 2 does this. Teleportation doesn't actually exist in the game's "gritty" sci-fi setting, so story-wise he's actually using a cloaking device to run between positions unseen, but the speed at which he does it is so insane that really it's just teleporting by another name.
    • The Eldar Warp Spiders in Dawn of War 2 teleport around like crazy. They have to, having high damage output and piss poor defense. For once the intro movie is not an example of Cutscene Power to the Max.
    • Silitha, one of the bosses of Darksiders, keeps teleporting around the arena as you fight her, attack by either teleporting right next to you for a quick, surprise swipe of her massive claws, or simply teleporting her even more massive bulk right above you. She's defeated when she stops to taunt you to stop dodging, underestimating your newfound ability to quickly close range. Repeatedly.
    • Kannagisai from Bushido Blade 2, the Final Boss of the Shainto campaign (or atleast the one that counts). He teleports away every time the player connects a strike, with the main catch being that he appears closer and closer to the player with each hit, with his defense open for a short moment after each teleport.
    • The Liir's stutterwarp drive in Sword of the Stars works by teleporting millimeters at a time, extremely rapidly. They need it because there's no inertia and their ships are filled with water.
      • They can use it to their advantage after enhancing the drive by temporarily "not being there", allowing shots to pass through the ship.
    • In The Dishwasher, you gain the ability to do this when you have the Shift Blade equipped. Unlike your normal dodge roll, it can be used indefinitely without a cooldown penalty.
    • This often happens when a Vecgir player's units have been upgraded to self teleport in Achron.
    • In The King of Dragons, there's one wizard Mini Boss whose entire moveset consists of teleporting around and attacking with long electric beams.
    • Lord Mei-Oh in the original Tenchu has this as one of his attacks. He readies himself for a rushing stab, then teleports and suddenly attacks from another angle. It Gets Worse if the player is caught from the back, since he'll quickly repeat the trick, and there's virtually no time to turn around and block, leading to a quick cheap death.
    • 4th boss Magician from the NES game Kung Fu/Spartan X teleports after either attacking or being hit, making him into a rather tricky boss. In the sequel Spartan X 2, Chin Gensai takes his mantle, teleporting around before launching his paralyzing attack.
    • Black Color/Ninja from Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake uses this as his strategy, teleporting around and throwing shurikens at Snake.
    • Grandmaster Meio in Strider 2 just loves this technique, moving all over the screen and unleashing his many attacks upon Hiryu.
    • Cannons from Cannon Dancer does this cosntantly, while leaving his Humongous Mecha do the fighting.
    • While technically nonmagical, in World of Warcraft the rogue talent Killing Spree has a similar effect, teleporting the rogue between nearby enemies and striking them at a rate of two times a second. It can't be kept up for very long though.
    • Houdini Splicers from the BioShock (series) games use this as a battle tactic. Luckily you can stop them from teleporting by stunning them, as well as setting them on fire which does not go out when they teleport. In the sequel, the unstable Teleport plasmid teleports all over the place whenever you try to touch it, and finally teleports you all over the place for a while.
    • Rift features the Riftstalker class, which allows players to fill their hotbar with no less than six teleport skills, plus one that teleports enemies. These are used for tanking of all things.
    • Shadow the Hedgehog does this in the opening of his game. He can't do anything remotely like this in actual gameplay.
    • Subverted in Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal. In the fight against Nefarious, it seems like has an uncanny ability of hopping around the field, but no actual teleportation is involved, just a lot of attacks which distract you.
      • Flint Vorselon does in A Crack in Time as well. He'll turn invisible, and all weapons will fail to target him, Cryomines will not target him until he comes out of his cloaking device (though Proximity Constructo Bombs still activate, oddly enough) and Mr. Zurkon will be unable to fire at him. While it may not seem like teleportation at first, considering he's using a cloaking device to just sneak away, you'll notice that he has an uncanny ability to get away from you if he ISN'T teleporting. Even using a weapon with a large radius seconds after he's gone invisible will reveal he's nowhere around. A few seconds after that? He's probably right behind you.
    • In Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure - Puku: Avenging Prince will do this during the entire fight. The best part? He's immune to all attacks that don't explicitly involve getting hit with the edge of Parin's drill or Popon's sword. Most of HIS attacks are long range, though.
    • The final boss of In Famous plays this differently than most examples. Rather than teleporting towards you to attack, he teleports away and launches long range attacks, or sets down field hazards such as bombs, shockwaves (which are surprisingly hard to jump over) and giant, whit outlined glowing clones of himself. This gets increasingly annoying considering there is a giant obstacle in the middle of the stage, which he loves to teleport to the other side of, making it hard to tell what he's about to do. (He also has a lovely attack which can shoot THROUGH the pillar!) There is one attack in which he'll teleport (in a zigzagging pattern) towards and launch a Shockwave, which will probably hit the first few times he does this, as that zigzagging pattern can really catch you off guard if you don't know what he's about to do.
      • Remember that (Good Side Only) upgrade to the Megawatt Hammer that causes your attack to home in on the next enemy you shock? Teleportation problem solved, right? Just a few homing attacks that become (near) impossible to dodge and you've got him! Yeah, no. That doesn't work on him.
    • Dimentio from Super Paper Mario is quite fond of doing this while you fight him, and even when you aren't.
    • A few bosses throughout the Kingdom Hearts series do this, but the king of this tactic is indeed Xigbar. He'll fly all over the arena and fire at you, making it almost impossible to see where he's attacking from. However, since he is able to control space, teleportation is reasonably within the scope of his powers.
      • He also pulls this move as Braig, though to a lesser degree.
    • In The Tower of Druaga, all the Magician-type enemies (Mage, Sorcerer, Druid, Wizard) do this.
    • It's possible to do this in RuneScape, as a way to level grind for Magic experience. Unfortunately, aside from the Level Grinding, there isn't a real practical combat use for it. Opinions on the use vary from player to player; some see it as a legitimate way to gain Mage xp, others see it as a dreadful waste of runes.
    • In the remake of Syndicate, Agent Tatsuo does this against you.
    • Way back on the Sega Genesis, the final boss of Ristar would teleport around the top half of the room during one of his opening attacks while he sat back and flung minions at you. His final phase sped up his teleporting so that it no longer had a fade-in animation and he'd just abruptly appear right in your face to nuke you with lightning—the only way to beat him was to grab and hit him in the three or four frames before he got his shot off.
    • In Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, enemy mages teleport frequently while blasting you with magic, making it hard to get a bead on them.


    Web Animation

    • In Dead Fantasy part one, Kasumi does this to dodge and attack Yuna and Rikku.
    • Mecha Sonic in Super Mario Bros Z does this to Axem Pink to disorient her before hitting her from behind.
    • The MK vs. SF 3 extravaganza by Proxicide features Chameleon teleporting like mad in his fight against Akuma.

    Web Comics

    • Charles in PS238.
    • Bro of Homestuck is so good at this that Dave (who's already fairly proficient at Flash Stepping to begin with) winds up fighting his afterimage during their duel.
    • As the first installment of Scarred shows in the Magic: The Gathering webcomics, Venser (already known to be handy with teleportation magic) seems to use this as his primary means of combat. To summarize: Problem: 2 zombies at his throat. Solution: Grab zombies, teleport with them a few hundred feet into the air, teleport back to ground without them. Splat.
    • In Sluggy Freelance, an alternative Riff (with technology even more advanced than our usual Riff) uses this in a more tactical way (ie. not so fast) when returning to a dimension that turns out to be hostile to him. "Of course it's real hard to corner someone who can move through time, space, and dimensions."
    • In Schlock Mercenary, a robot evacuates a building in seconds by teleporting to, and out with, each inhabitant. Starships use Teleport Spam to cover their tracks when they escape. In combat it's not possible while the enemy has an area denial system up, and redundant once the system comes down, an occasion generally marked with a warhead to the bridge.
    • In Gunnerkrigg Court after Parley finally had her teleportation under control, she devised a fighting style based on this. "I'll call it... the Unsichtbarhau!"

    Web Original

    • In the fan film of Mega Man, the eponymous robot gets his own teleporter and does this against Wily and Copy Robot. Odd, since in the games it's Wily, not Mega Man, who tends to do this.
    • In Kickassia, this and a Cool Sword are Kevin Baugh's main fighting traits.

    Western Animation

    • As per the quote, Ganon from the Legend of Zelda cartoon liked to do this, using it as the teleportation version of Punctuated Pounding while monologuing.
    • Wakfu has Yugo, and all Eliatropes by proxy ( not that there's any left to compare), who uses this as his main strategy.
      • So would we call Teleport Spam a common EliaTrope?
      • Oh, boy.
      • Nox has the same tactic (along with Time Stands Still), using standard teleportation while Eliatropes use portals.
      • In season 2, Qilby, another Eliatrope, appears. When he reveals himself as the Big Bad, he displays teleport spamming even better than Yugo's.
    • Kyd Wykkyd did this against Kid Flash in Teen Titans. Impressive, considering it was done against someone with Super Speed.
    • When Twilight confronts Applejack in an episode of My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic, rather than simply following her as she carries her apple baskets from tree to tree, she repeatedly teleports right in front of her face.
      • Discord is also quite a fan of this.
      • Twilight does it again throughout 'Lesson Zero'. Note that in both that episode and 'Applebuck Season', she's using it to actually spam. Well, talk a lot, anyway. (She also uses a tactical version in 'Luna Eclipsed' to block a panicking Pinkie.)
      • In Secret of My Excess she uses it externally on a fleeing Spike, repeatedly teleporting him to her as he tries to run; it ends when Pinkie Pie is teleported unexpectedly.
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