History Main / CommonPlaceRare

** Cookies were rare for a long time, to the point that they became a sort of trophy. This changed once cocoa beans became farmable and could be easily found in jungle biomes, instead of just in dungeon chests.
*** Likewise, Brown Dye (and its assorted dyed items like Wool and Glass) is frustratingly hard to get ahold of because you can ONLY make them from cocoa beans, which spawn in the rare Jungle Biomes. Brown Wool is at least a little easier to get as Brown Sheep spawn vaguely frequently, but it's still a pain in the backside if you just want a brown bed without the use of Creative or commands.

*** Same with Melons, which, like Coaca Beans, only spawn in the Jungle biomes.

*** Likewise, Brown Dye (and its assorted dyed items like Wool and Glass) is frustratingly hard to get ahold of because you can ONLY make them from Coaca Beans, which spawn in the rare Jungle Biomes. Brown Wool is at least a little easier to get as Brown Sheep spawn vaguely frequently, but it's still a pain in the backside if you just want a brown bed without the use of Creative or commands.

** The Detron is a sidearm used by common Corpus units, yet rather than being available through the market or clan dojo it can be assembled only with parts looted from the Zanuka Hunter, who ''may'' appear on Corpus-controlled territories if you finished enough invasion missions for the Grineer.[[labelnote/*]] Ironically, the unique variants of the Detron are much easier to acquire, with the [[SuperPrototype Mara Detron]] being purchasable from Baro Ki’Teer whereas the [[AceCustom Tenet Detron]] can be acquired from a [[ProceduralGeneration generated]] [[EvilCounterpart Sister of Parvos]].[[/labelnote]]

** The Detron is a sidearm used by common Corpus units, yet rather than being available through the market or clan dojo it can be assembled only with parts looted from the Zanuka Hunter, who ''may'' appear on Corpus-controlled territories if you finished enough invasion missions for the Grineer.

** The {{Machete|Mayhem}} is a Grineer blade weapon used by common Scorpion units. It used to be availaible for players through the market early in ''Warframe'''s history, but was removed from it and since then became available only through a blueprint ''very'' rarely gained from Teshin's [[PlayEveryDay Daily Tribute]], and only if you haven't mastered the weapon in the first place.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Blasphemous}}'' knots of rosary cord are incredibly rare, when given how intensely religious all of Cvstodia is, you'd think they'd be all over the place. This is explained in game as one character being ''so good'' at making rosaries that [[PerfectionIsAddictive the church decreed that her rosaries were the only ones worth using, and that all others were unholy and should be destroyed]]. Since she died long before the events of the game, there haven't been any new rosaries made in quite a while.

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[-[[caption-width-right:350:How expensive? Look at the bottom right corner. Yes, you only have 201 rupees in total at that point in the game. This is why people recycle bottles.]]-]

[-[[caption-width-right:350: Either glass is rarer than gold in this universe or they’re overcharging Link on his adventuring supplies.]]-]

[-[[caption-width-right:350:How expensive? Look at the bottom right corner. Yes, you only have 201 rupees in total at that point in the game. This is why people recycle bottles.]]-]

* In ''VideoGame/UltimaVIIPartII: Serpent Isle'', one of the common reagents you use for spellcasting is mandrake, and indeed it can be found and bought in plenty of places. Later in the game, an NPC gives you the task to obtain mandrake. For some reason, only mandrake from one specific location qualifies, all the other mandrake doesn't work; and you can't get to that spot yet (semi-justified in that he wants ''fresh'' mandrake, and the stuff you can buy is presumably dried: it doesn't make a difference a spell reagent, though). Going back further in the series, in ''VideoGame/UltimaIV'' mandrake and nightshade cannot be bought, and can only be harvested in one place each in the entire world, during one particular lunar phase.

* You can find a single shovel in ''VideoGame/PathfinderKingmaker'' and it's not even in a shop, but in the wilderness of the Stolen Lands. Most players will disregard the shovel and sell it, [[GuideDangIt while it be used in the last chapter to dig up a unique magical item]].

** In many games in the series, glass bottles are ''extremely'' valuable to Link; he usually can only find about four of them in each game and it requires searching the farthest, most remote places in Hyrule. Yet there's frequently a thriving milk industry, and potion sellers can't only be selling to people who have traveled past TheLostWoods to get the one glass bottle that Farmer Brown is only willing to give to someone who completes his mini-game. You don't need (usually explicitly magical) glass bottles to drink potions or milk, except you do because the game won't let you use anything else. In ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword Skyward Sword]]'', the rarity of glass bottles (one NPC equates being allowed to keep one as adequate reward for ''saving his sister's life'') is actually justified this time around. Glass is made from sand, sand is crushed rocks, and the FloatingContinent everybody lives on has an alarmingly finite amount of habitable land as it is. Breaking any up to smelt glass (which can easily fall from the island or shatter into uselessness) would have very permanent consequences. On the other hand, it's playfully lampshaded in ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkBetweenWorlds A Link Between Worlds]]''. The vendor selling a bottle for a high price is noted by a nearby shopkeeper to be a charlatan, and one character gives you a bottle after he's done using it with the expectation that you'll throw it away.

* ''VideoGame/GoldenSun2001'':

** Saddles clearly ''should'' be craftable from leather, which is easy to collect from cows, but for some reason you cannot do this. Instead, you have to track down a Leatherworker villager (not found in all villages) and trade with them until they offer a saddle. Occasionally, you can get one while fishing or in randomly-generated overworld chests. Seemingly the only purpose of this is to make horseback-riding a LuckBasedMission (even though ''finding'' a horse can also be rather difficult in some cases).

* Iron is apparently rare anywhere but on Earth in ''WesternAnimation/Ben10'' universe.

* In ''VideoGame/PathOfExile'', fishing rods are ''extremely'' rare, but are nigh-useless as weapons. They can only drop if you have a specific unique tricorne equipped. Another equally rare item is the bait: albino rhoa feathers can only drop from the equally elusive albino rhoa. It is said that these are the items required for fishing, but few players actually ''know'' how to fish, as the staff will relentlessly hunt down anyone who discloses fishing secrets.

* ''VideoGame/LandsOfLore 2'': The silverleaf is supposed to grow in the Dracoid Cemetery. Except that it doesn't. Instead, you have to find glass orbs, charge them at three different machines (One of which is located in a completely different and '''HUGE''' level, the Dracoid Ruins) to open the various crypts. (The orbs can be charged with white, blue or yellow sparks to open crypts with corresponding doors. If you you don't have the right kind of orbs, you may have to go all the way back to the right machine.) In one of those crypts you will find the ghost of a dracoid priest who wants you to cremate his body for him and bring him the ashes. And where might his body be? In the farthest corner of the Ruins. So after this incredible endeavor, he opens the door into the dracoid king's crypt for you. (This is back at the Cemetery, mind you.) What does ''his'' ghost want? To destroy what's left of the Ruins of course! So he gives you his bones in an urn that you have to take to a statue somewhere in the ruins, which will come to life and fight an ice worm, causing the ruins to flood. So you have to get the hell out of there, end up back in the jungle, head back toward the Cemetery... and ''then'' the king will make the silverleaves grow. To top it off, whole piles of silverleaves turn up later at the Ruloi Citadel.

See also UnusableEnemyEquipment. Contrast JunkRare and OddlyCommonRarity.

* The "larger wallet" phenomenon occurs again in ''VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou'' where the only way to construct the third wallet requires {{Orichalcum}} and Dark Matter. That's some wallet. They're also extremely rare if you waste the few you get as a part of the story. You can only obtain Dark Matter (or its trade material Shadow Matter) from some of the hardest enemies in the game.

* Only three [=NPCs=] in SFC version of ''VideoGame/TalesOfPhantasia'' seem to possess bags in which the player party can carry food to eat.

[[folder: Turn Based Tactics]]

** Cookies were this for a long time, to the point that they became a sort of trophy. This changed once cocoa beans became farmable and could be easily found in jungle biomes, instead of just in dungeon chests.

** In ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'', a road is blocked by a 'tree' (actually a Pokémon, Sudowoodo), so nobody can pass there. You have to defeat the ([[ThatOneBoss difficult]]) Gym Leader in order to acquire an item that will allow you to remove said tree: the Squirtbottle, a Squirtle-shaped watering can. (Sudowoodo is actually Rock-type, [[ElementalRockPaperScissors making it weak to water]]).

** Getting an "adult's wallet" that carries more Rupees seems to always require fantastic feats and gifts from supernatural creatures. This despite Link's apparent HyperspaceArsenal[=/=]BagOfHolding inventory. It's the same with larger quivers and bomb bags, too, although in the case of the bomb bag, several games state that they're crafted by Gorons and made of odd or rare materials like dodongo stomachs and/or the woven fibers of bomb flowers.