1. Anyone can punch a baddie until he’s dead

Who cares if the enemy has guns, and you’ve never punched anything before? Just move your fist toward the mercenary in a fast enough manner, and watch him drop. Right, Nathan Drake? (Photo by: Naughty Dog)

2. All armor fits you all the time,so don’t worry about it

See this massive Fallout 3 power armor? Who cares if you're wee like Tom Cruise? No need for a tailor. Just rock that look. (Photo by: Bethesda)

3. Anyone can become practically invisible just through practice

Just activate your stealth skill (we all have it) and keep activating it until no one can see you! This trick works especially well if you live in a place called Skyrim … and you look like this guy. (Photo by: Bethesda)

4. Just talk to people to get better at everything

Who knew that by merely having a conversation with that blue woman in your space ship, you’d get better at killing the bad guys? That’s what we learned from Mass Effect 3, anyways. (Photo by: BioWare)

5. If it’s red, it’s evil and you need to run

Consider Dragon Age: Inquisition. Regular templars? OK. Red templars? bad. Lyrium? OK. Red lyrium? Evil. And don’t even get us started on the red light sabers in the Star Wars universe … (Photo by: BioWare)

6. Every monster dreams of killing you

Every monster on Earth has nothing better to do than attack you. It has no other goals, hobbies or dreams. Nothing. Just ask anyone who has played Resident Evil. (Photo by: Capcom)

7. Clueless? Just look for a note.

People always leave notes before they die. Those notes always contain precisely one-third of the crucial information you need to survive. The rest of the note never got finished before the writer got a chance to warn you about … ARRRGHHH! (Example? Start with every hidden-object game from Big Fish.) (Photo: Big Fish Games)

8. Never piss off the town blacksmith

Need a weapon heavy enough to crush that army of skeletons? How about some shiny new armor so you don’t get clobbered in your next Diablo-style dungeon? Yeah. You need a blacksmith for that. (Photo by: Blizzard Entertainment)

9. All you need to make a deadly weapon is some tape and a stick

Think you need a smelter and years of journeyman’s practice to make a decent weapon? Don’t be silly. The Last of Us proves that you can just put some tape around a stick and watch the deadly monsters drop. (Photo by: Naughty Dog)

10. Computers with sweet voices are not your friend

The more angelic the voice, the more devious the character. Contrast, say, the practical voice of Mass Effect’s Edi (your friend) with the sugary timbre of Portal's GLaDOS (not your friend). (Photo by: Valve Corp.)

11. When in doubt, jump

Something coming toward you? Not sure what it is? You could stand there mulling the possibilities, or you could just jump, for God’s sake. (Photo by: Nintendo)

12. Always shoot barrels

Are Doom-style enemies closing in? Do you just happen to be in a room full of barrels? No need to run! Every barrel always explodes when you shoot it. No duds. Ever. (Photo by: id/Bethesda)

13. Be yourself and famous enemies will have nothing better to do than find you

Sure, you're just an ordinary bloke. But the second you step outside of your house, your life is so eventful that famous people will find you. Even if you're just, say, the valet of a random rich guy from Victorian London, your train will always be the one that Jesse James has been just waiting to rob. Always. And you, and only you, will be the one who can stop him. (Photo by: Inkle)

14. Sometimes you just need to put a pumpkin on your head

Not every defense makes a ton of sense. But, hey, if putting a pumpkin on your head lets you avoid certain death, do what you gotta do, Minecraft player!

15. For God's sake, let the follower do it

Why would you take on an enemy when you have, say, a destruction mage named Marcurio, whose lightning bolts can send an ascendant necromancer flying?