History Main / ColorCodedItemTiers

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* The tabletop RPG ''TabletopGame/AgeOfAquarius'' has a rarity rating for every weapon or item. It features standard rarity ratings of "Common", "Rare", "Very Rare" for most items, and off-the-scale, idiosyncratic rarity ratings for both extremely common items (i.e. Rock: "It's probably lying under your feet right now") and extremely rare items (i.e. Minigun: "Hell freezes over before you find one").

* In ''{{Elsword}}'', the colors that indicate item tiers isn't shown in the equipment model itself, but rather, the letters are colored differently. The tiers go as thus: Normal (white letters), Rare (yellow letters), Elite (purple letters) and Unique (beige letters). There's also one extra tier, Old (black letters) that is reserved for unusable, junk equipments.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands 2}}'', White and Green are the most common, Blue are one step above and sometimes one-of-a-kind items, Purple are one step further, Magenta is for special Eridium-enhanced weapons, Pink is Seraph items introduced in the first DLC as [[AwesomeButImpractical powerful gear with significant drawbacks]], Orange is for Legendary items (with no shade variations like the firs game). The cyan Pearlescent items are exclusive to the second NewGamePlus. One of the LoadingScreen tips even offers a helpful mnemonic for the basic spectrum: "'''W'''hen '''G'''randma '''b'''urps, '''P'''atrick '''o'''beys."

* ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' features item qualities for its weapons, hats and esthetic gizmos. Although their rarity is relative and sometimes a vintage or a genuine quality item can be considered being worth less than their common counterpart from the users, Light Grey (default "Stock" items) > Yellow (unique) > Blue (vintage) > Green (genuine) > Purple (unusual) could be considered a relatively canonical order of rarity, with genuines and vintages being very dependant on the item itself. There are also other qualities such as stranges or community made items that can't be placed anywhere precisely within the order by rarity.

* In ''Franchise/{{Disgaea}}'' games, there are three tiers of item rarity and it shows trough the name, the common tier have white text, Rare items have green (With blue if you equip multiple Rare items) and Legendary have Gold text. Almost all items have 3 versions of them : Common (White), Rare (Silver in first game, Green in later games) and Legendary (Gold). The better the rarity, the more powerful the item is, the more floor its Item World have, and the more Specialist/Innocents it can hold. However, while Rare items are stronger than normal items and Legendary items are stronger then Rare items, you can get most of the items in Common, Rare or Legendary (Exceptions include Rank 40 items like the InfinityPlusOneSword, {{Joke Weapon}}s and some unique weapons that {{Optional Party Member}}s have, all of which only come in Legendary) and if you go to the Item world, you can strengthen an item making it stronger than an unleveled Legendary version of the same item.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands 2}}'', White and Green are the most common, Blue are one step above and sometimes one-of-a-kind items, Purple are one step further, Magenta is for special Eridium-enhanced weapons, Pink is Seraph items introduced in the first DLC as [[AwesomeButImpractical powerful gear with significant drawbacks]], Orange is for Legendary items (with no shade variations like the firs game). The cyan Pearlescent items are exclusive to the second NewGamePlus. One of the LoadingScreen tips even offers a helpful mnemonic for the basic spectrum: "When Grandma burps, Patrick obeys."

* In ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands 2}}'', White and Green are the most common, Blue are one step above and sometimes one-of-a-kind items, Purple are one step further, Magenta is for special Eridium-enhanced weapons, Pink is Seraph items introduced in the first DLC as [[AwesomeButImpractical powerful gear with significant drawbacks]], Orange is for Legendary items (with no shade variations like the firs game). The cyan Pearlescent items are exclusive to the second NewGamePlus.

* Rupees in ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' while higher colors tend to vary the most consistent value is Green=1 Blue=5. Purple is always among the higher values ranging from 50 to 200 depending on the game.

* ''VideoGame/CounterStrike: Global Operations'' divides weapon skins into seven tiers: Consumer grade (white), Industrial grade (light blue), Mil-spec (blue), Restricted (purple), Classified (magenta), Covert (red) and melee weapon-only tier marked with a star symbol (gold).

As opposed to tropes like PowerGlows and BlingOfWar, Color Coded Item Tiers are strictly non-diegetic, used only to help the player distinguish the item's power through inventory background or item name color. Usually, the colors are, as [[TropeCodifier codified by]] ''WorldOfWarcraft'', mundane white items, followed by green "uncommon" ones, blue "rare" ones and [[PurpleIsPowerful purple]] "epic" ones. Sometimes, orange or golden tier of [[InfinityPlusOneSword Infinity Plus One Weapons]] is used as well. The only consistent pattern is that White, Gray and Green are towards the bottom of the tier and Purple and Orange are usually towards the higher end (if they're even there), but whether white is the absolute lowest or purple is the absolute highest or there are 3 or more colors or whatever is up in the air.

* The first ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'' game features EIGHT colors (White, Green, Blue, Purple, Yellow, Orange, Dark Orange, Pearlescent). Up to Dark Orange, those follow the usual pattern of rarity, Pearlescent ones are exclusively easter egg items.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands 2}}'', the number of tiers is reduced to six: White and Green being the most common, Blue are unique, named items, Purple are special Eridium-enhanced weapons, Pink are introduced in the first DLC as AwesomeButImpractical powerful guns with significant drawbacks, and Orange ones are ultra-rare items akin to the Pearlescent ones from the first game.

** ''DiabloIII'' uses a slightly different colour scheme than its predecessor.

*** White (mundane)
*** Grey (Socketed, same as mundane but can be improved with gems and runes)
*** Blue (One or two magic properties)
*** Yellow (Random mix of magic properties)
*** Gold (Unique, pre-set magical properties with a unique name and appearance)
*** Green (Set, use in conjuction with other items in the same set to get additional bonuses)

*** Grey/Inferior: broken, damaged, or weak items.
*** White/Common: items with no magic qualities.
*** Blue/Magic: common magical items, with one or two enhancements.
*** Yellow/Rare: less common magical items, with more enhancements.
*** Orange/Legendary: named items with pre-set magical enhancements (replacing D2's Unique class).
*** Set/Green: similar to Legendary, but grant extra bonuses when worn with other items of the same set.

* ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'' features five colors: green, blue, orange (SocketedEquipment that allows you to freely swap the stat-boosting components to match your level while keeping the same look), purple (coming from {{Rare Random Drop}}s and stores selling gear for endgame dungeon tokens; usually SocketedEquipment filled with purple stat-boosting components by default, the endgame shop armors also give additional bonuses for wearing at least two parts of a given set) and light gold "Inheritance" items that are limited to characters on the same player account.

* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' eventually coded the card rarities. Black means common, silver means uncommon, gold means rare, and orange means mythic rare.

* Rupees in ''TheLegendOfZelda'' while higher colors tend to vary the most consistent value is Green=1 Blue=5. Purple is always among the higher values ranging from 50 to 200 depending on the game.

As opposed to tropes like PowerGlows and BlingOfWar, Color Coded Item Tiers are strictly diegetic, used only to help the player distinguish the item's power through inventory background or item name color. Usually, the colors are, as [[TropeCodifier codified by]] ''WorldOfWarcraft'', mundane white items, followed by green "uncommon" ones, blue "rare" ones and [[PurpleIsPowerful purple]] "epic" ones. Sometimes, orange or golden tier of [[InfinityPlusOneSword Infinity Plus One Weapons]] is used as well. The only consistent pattern is that White, Gray and Green are towards the bottom of the tier and Purple and Orange are usually towards the higher end (if they're even there), but whether white is the absolute lowest or purple is the absolute highest or there are 3 or more colors or whatever is up in the air.

* ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'' uses white for common, green for uncommon, blue for rare, purple for very rare, and light purple for ultra rare (reserved for Fleet gear).

* ''VideoGame/{{Torchlight}} 2'' has white (common) > green(uncommon) > blue (rare) > orange (unique), with purple being reserved for quest-related items.

SeenItAMillionTimes: whether you're playing a single-player RPG, or a MMORPG, you're bound to encounter items (weapons, armor, jewelry, etc.) that are divided into at least three tiers of power and rarity that just happen to be ColorCodedForYourConvenience. Rarity gives us a visual indicator of how one item compares to another in terms of game advancement. If rarity didn't exist, there would be more of a need to test or compare stats before you'd even know whether to get excited that you got a particular item. Rarity offers an immediate clue as to whether an available item will be effective against the tier of enemies you'll encounter at your current level

* Items in the ''Franchise/DragonAge'' series are color-coded by their [[http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Material material]]. ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'' plays this trope straight, which every material corresponding to a particular item tier (e.g. from the grey tier 1 iron to the golden tier 9 Volcanic Aurum). ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' subverts this: despite having material and color tiers for the items, the real power/quality of an item is determined by a hidden statistic.