this post was submitted on 10 Apr 2025
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TL;DR: Game balance is incredibly complex, and the amount of attention to detail required is insane in order to keep all of these in check. You can do anything with anything if you know how.
Just to piggyback, it's actually possible to do any of these with mechanics or numbers, although depending who you'd ask this breakdown is either spot on or the wildest shit they've ever heard because game balancing is a weird difficult concept.
Precision Numbers: Think overflow. Whoops, you missed the mark by 1 or 2 and wasted some points.
Precision Mechanics: Best example I can think of is a bullet hell or a racing game as you explained. More enemies/bullets = less space to maneuver.
Complexity Numbers: Think bloated idle games and daily quests (aka Tedium)
Complexity Mechanics: Like adds on a raid boss. Extra things to worry about.
Timing Numbers: Time attack in a racing game is a great example of this
Timing Mechanics: Quick time events, but only if they're done well
Punishment Numbers: Less HP, more damage, etc. fairly obvious
Punishment Mechanics: Again going back to rogue likes, it's not uncommon to have multiple types of HP which swings Punishment around depending on how those types of HP work.
Resource Consumption Numbers: Drop rates, mana, health pools
Resource Consumption Mechanics: Usually this is where layering resources occurs, gear and a skill tree or a skill tree and temporary buffs, etc. Metacurrency can be considered either mechanical or numbers based depending on how it's handled.
You could also increase the reward for the correct response and increase the penalty for an incorrect response. For a fighting game, this means executing the correct combo at the right time does extra damage, and using the wrong combo or missing the time window leaves you open to getting wrecked.
I also think forcing players to change the types of resources they use instead of sticking with the kind they prefer fits here. For example, if you only use the shotgun in an FPS, you may be fine on lower difficulties, but you need to switch to more effective weapons on harder difficulties (in Half Life, crowbar for headcrabs, assault rifle for people, and shotgun for head crab crowds or close combat, etc). If you use the right tool for the job, you'll have enough resources.