Training Dummy

Almost makes you feel guilty beating up such a cute thing, doesn't it?

"Getting hit doesn't hurt Sandbag at all. As a matter of fact, it loves to see players wind up and let loose."

—The Sand Bag's trophy description in Super Smash Bros Melee

This is some typically immortal character that you can return to, to practice your moves on. You can't lose a fight against one, but in most cases, you can't really "win" the fight either. You decide when the fight is over.

Sometimes you can get rewards for getting high combos, involving keeping it in the air as long as possible. Other times it involves destroying the training dummy when it is not meant to be destroyed.

Training dummies usually make no effort to fight back. In cases where they do, you may also have the option to determine their behavior, whether it be defensive, offensive, or jump in place on one leg.

Contrast with the Training Boss, a training opponent that you can't win against but can lose to.

Examples of Training Dummy include:

Film

• The famous training droid from Star Wars, which makes little whooshing sounds and fires a (mostly) harmless blaster bolt. In the Star Wars Expanded Universe this shows up a lot as a tool for training Jedi in Battle Precognition.
  • There's a point in the X Wing Series comics when Ysanne takes a break from sparring with a padded boxer droid to see to a defeated enemy.

Video Games

• The Sandbag of Super Smash Bros.. It is sentient, but as the quote above demonstrates, it's totally cool with getting smacked around.
  • Also in Super Smash Bros Brawl, you get trophies for kicking around the computer player in training mode.
• World of Warcraft has Training Dummies for precisely that purpose - to be precise, they're for seeing how much damage you can do, rather than building up weapon skills.
  • They're also useful for testing statistics and for developing good rotations for your abilities. In a more literal sense, in Cataclysm, there are actual dummies that train your character in skills like normal trainers.
• There are a few dummies like this in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, primarily located in Fighter Guild quarters.
  • Until they are no longer plot sensitive, you can consider Oblivion's NPCs to be training dummy characters. Beat them up all you want (they will fight back) for they won't die, but only fall unconscious and reawaken feeling all better for more beatings. And unlike actual training dummies, doing so actually levels up your stats, since attacks only count if they're on enemies or NPCs - the dummies are just for decoration (although they do jiggle around when hit).
• In Revenant, there's a dummy you can practice your moves on during the tutorial mission.
• Okami has training dummies that you can slice in half as many times as you like. The dojo master just whacks his shinai on the floor and it slides back together.
• Twilight Princess has a scarecrow in Link's front yard where he can practise his moves after he receives his wooden sword. The neighboorhood children call out attacks for you to perform on him.
  • Likewise, the Hero's Shade serves as an animated Training Dummy, since no matter how much of a beatdown you lay on him, he'll get back up again. The only problem is that you hardly ever get to attack him with attacks other than the one you happen to be learning at the moment.
• In Overlord, the Jester serves this purpose. In the main game while you are in your Evil Lair he'll follow you around and praise you with titles depending how you play. You can still attack him. Doing so will eventually have him start to include "The abuser of Jesters" among your titles.
• Valkyrie Profile has a mode in which you can practice the timing of your combos against an immortal version of the enemies fought in the first dungeon.
• Much like the Valkyrie Profile example above, Endless Frontier also has an near-immortal version of first-dungeon enemy you can practice combos on. The key word here being "near": ironically enough, you can only destroy it with low-level characters, as its defense and self-healing increase exponentally as you gain levels, making it so that it heals 6 digits worth of damage every turn and only ever takes 10 damage from any attack when fought with maxed out characters.
• The City of Heroes tutorial zone "Outbreak" included a parking lot at an abandoned motel where the police have set up unkillable Rikti drones for new heroes to practice their attacks on.
  • The City of Villains tutorial "Breakout" similarly had deactivated police drones.
  • And much later, the co-op Vanguard Base had Rikti-shaped training dummies.
• In the reboot of the Spyro the Dragon series, you get to practice all your new moves when you first get them on special training dummies.
• RuneScape had practice dummies up until about level 7 on each of your attack stats.
• In Tomb Raider:Legend, there is a dummy in the first Peru level which you can practice your hand-to-hand combat moves on.
• The training area in Assassin's Creed has either one or two young assassins for you to pummel. Unlike most incarnations of this, they don't take it without a fight; they're just plain weak (plus, you never use fatal moves on them).
• At the end of Half-Life 2: Episode 2 there's a giant disabled robot which you can use to practice your aim at throwing grenades as long as you want.
• Puzzle Quest Challenge of the Warlords has the Practice Dummy. A skilled player can use it to rack up easy gold and EXP before heading out to the storyline missions.
• Kingdom Hearts lets you practice magic and special attacks against Merlin's endlessly respawning furniture.
• One (maybe all) of the Devil May Cry games features a practice area for you to master combo moves in, offering a straw-filled effigy to wail on.
• Guild Wars has wooden dummies to beat up on in the tutorial.
• So does Fable. In fact, they're still sitting around long after you no longer need them.
• Vagrant Story has training dummies that allow the player to build weapon stats.
• Dan of Street Fighter IV is the training dummy for the Trial challenges.
  • As with Bang Shishigami in BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Challenge Modes.
• Subverted in Waku Waku 7 with Bonus-kun, which is a training dummy and does fight back.
• Oni's tutorial level has training robots, who are invincible.
• The Myth series has scarecrow-like training dummies with buckets or pumpkins for heads.
• Jump! Ultimate Stars has KomaRed, KomaYellow, and KomaBlue, three square-looking things (they represent manga panels) that actually have fully functional attacks. They have three uses: tutorials and practice (each represents an attribute so you can test damage), cannon fodder in certain missions, and a handicap when you're forced to play as them.
• La Tale has an early tutorial area that is filled to the brim with training dummies you can smack around until you feel comfortable with the controls.
• Ayane first appearance in the Dead or Alive series is as a training dummy.
• An unlockable character form the ultra-violent Thrill Kill is a S&M gimp. You don't feel bad about beating him up because he loves the pain and he is just plain damn weird.
• The Poochyena that's attacking the Professor in Ruby and Sapphire will flee if you try to lose on purpose.
• Mokujin in Tekken was actually a wooden Training Dummy brought to life due to any fighting force surging near him (Ogre, Jinpachi Mishima, etc). He's also the Training Dummy for move demonstration in Namco X Capcom.
• Kirby's Return to Dream Land has a golem-like dummy in the item rooms which can't be destroyed, expect if you smallow it. Even then, it respawns.
• Wii Sports Boxing Training has a punching bag mode where you punch as many bags as you can in 1 minute. You can even play Multiplayer Hot-Seat like in all trainings.
• As a reference to Kinnikuman training for his battle against Warsman, Mayumi Suguru is the training dummy for Kinnikuman: Muscle Fight. He's there, so the player can get a feel for their character they've chosen.

Web Original

• Neopets has a character named "Punchbag Bob" that you can beat up in the training mode. You can also get him as a battledome challenger, where he's very hard to beat if this troper is remembering right.
  • The guy has 5000 health, and you get a special trophy if you whittle that down to zero. It does take a while, and he sometimes pulls his "Dark Shield" to slow you down.
  • Fighting him will randomly put you against Punchbag Sid, rarely, his Evil Twin who is one of the most powerful enemies in the game.
    • Whereas Punchbag Bob wears those silly-looking "Groucho Glasses", Sid sports an Eyepatch of Power. 'Nuff said.

Real Life

• Ever wail on your pillow for no reason? Or your sister?
• The targets for Shooting Ranges.
• Punching bags.