History Main / EmergencyEnergyTank

In most action games, there are [[HealingPotion items that refill]] a little bit of your [[HitPoints health]] and [[{{Mana}} energy]] as soon as you touch them. Sometimes, there are special inventory items that completely refill your health or energy, or possibly both. In {{RPG}}s, it can even remove StandardStatusEffects, up to and including death. But once you use it, it's gone, and you'll have to find another one - and there's often only a finite amount of them in the whole game.

This is the EmergencyEnergyTank, which can be your greatest ally when locked in battle with ThatOneBoss, or if you're just trying to stay alive period. A very specific SubTrope of TooAwesomeToUse.

Compare AutoRevive, HeartContainer.

* ''{{Marathon}}'' has canisters that heal you instantly, as opposed to health stations. They are rare, but usually useful where they are placed. The health canisters come in red for full health, yellow for double health, and purple for triple health. They are more common than health stations in multiplayer.

* The ''Manga/DragonBall'' Manga/Anime series provides a non video game example with senzu beans. When a character eats it, his or her energy is completely revitalized and all injuries are healed instantly. An amusing moment occurs when BigEater Yajirobe eats a basket full of them and gains a seriously upset stomach, with senzu bean creator Korin telling him afterwards that you're only supposed to eat one when you're not at a 100% healthy condition, and ''only one'' (they have the secondary effect of "feeding a man for ten days").

** The MetroidPrime trilogy also has the same mechanic.

* The ''{{Dragonball}}'' Manga/Anime series provides a non video game example with senzu beans. When a character eats it, his or her energy is completely revitalized and all injuries are healed instantly. An amusing moment occurs when BigEater Yajirobe eats a basket full of them and gains a seriously upset stomach, with senzu bean creator Korin telling him afterwards that you're only supposed to eat one when you're not at a 100% healthy condition, and ''only one'' (they have the secondary effect of "feeding a man for ten days").

* In most ''FinalFantasy'' games, Elixirs restore all of your HP and MP, but are either not buyable or cost something obscene like [[FinalFantasyIV 100,000 gil]].

** They've also been incorporated into some of the video game adaptations. The ''DragonballZ Budokai'' series, for instance, features senzu bean capsules which, when equipped, basically act as a final life for your character after he or she has been KO'd, with varying degrees of vitality recovery depending on the bean equipped. The strongest is the 100% senzu bean, which restores your vitality completely, but due to being the strongest of the beans, it takes up a lot of space in your character's custom capsule inventory.

* Fairies in the ''Zelda'' series, which (depending on the game) refill some or all of your life. These fairies can be used in two different ways if you catch one. You can assign her to a button during game play and press it, or she can automatically revive you if you die, saving you from certain GameOver. Various potions can also recharge your health or mana.

* Potions in ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' work this way. They range from regular Potions, which restore 20HP, up to Max Potions, which restore all HP. PP Ups exist but they're more rare. Status healers abound as well: Awakening,Paralyz Heal,Ice Heal,Antidote and Burn Heal. But it's easier to just use a Full Heal, which cures all status conditions including confusion, or a Full Restore, whcih restores HP and cures status conditions. And then you have Carbos,Proteins,Fresh Waters,Rare Candies ect for restoring health in various ways.

** In the series, the villainous Cell is fully aware of how awesome these are, and proceeds to use his superior speed to just swipe them from the support character who brought them for the team's big showdown against him. [[spoiler: He then uses them himself and turns all that extra health and energy into several tiny clones that wreak havoc among the support characters as they attack]]

** Debuted in ''VideoGame/MegaMan2'', and [[MemeticMutation famously kept until the very end when fighting]] [[BlowYouAway AirMan]].

* ''Marathon'' has canisters that heal you instantly, as opposed to health stations. They are rare, but usually useful where they are placed. The health canisters come in red for full health, yellow for double health, and purple for triple health. They are more common than health stations in multiplayer.

* Potions in ''{{Pokemon}}'' work this way. They range from regular Potions, which restore 20HP, up to Max Potions, which restore all HP. PP Ups exist but they're more rare. Status healers abound as well: Awakening,Paralyz Heal,Ice Heal,Antidote and Burn Heal. But it's easier to just use a Full Heal, which cures all status conditions including confusion, or a Full Restore, whcih restores HP and cures status conditions. And then you have Carbos,Proteins,Fresh Waters,Rare Candies ect for restoring health in various ways.

* Potions in WorldOfWarcraft work like this. They can be used in battle, but can't be spammed due to a long cool down that affects all potion usage and doesn't start until you leave combat. As such one must know when to use potions to avoid wasting it.

* Potions in ''{{Pokemon}}'' work this way. They range from regular Potions, which restore 50HP, up to Max Potions, which restore all HP. PP Ups exist but they're more rare. Status healers abound as well: Awakening,Paralyz Heal,Ice Heal,Antidote and Burn Heal. But it's easier to just use a Full Heal, which cures all status conditions including confusion, or a Full Restore, whcih restores HP and cures status conditions. And then you have Carbos,Proteins,Fresh Waters,Rare Candies ect for restoring health in various ways.

This is the EmergencyEnergyTank, which can be your greatest ally when locked in battle with ThatOneBoss, or if you're just trying to stay alive period. A very specific {{sub trope}} of TooAwesomeToUse.

* The Portable Medkits from ''DukeNukem 3D''.

* Fairies in the ''LegendOfZelda'' series, which (depending on the game) refill some or all of your life. These fairies can be used in two different ways if you catch one. You can assign her to a button during game play and press it, or she can automatically revive you if you die, saving you from certain GameOver. Various potions can also recharge your health or mana.

*** Similarly in Link's Awakening and the Oracle of Seasons/Ages games for GameBoy and GameBoyColor respectively, you have no bottles. All three games allow you to obtain a Magic Potion which will save you from death once before vanishing.

* Possibly an unintentional version in the ''VideoGame/DantesInferno'' game: By spending "soul" points (rather than collecting relics a la GodOfWar), you can purchase health and mana upgrades. When you purchase them, it also gives you the bonus of refilling the gauge to maximum. Because these upgrades can be purchased pretty much whenever you're permitted to pause, you can refill your health and mana at will in the middle of a fight, which helps to balance out the slew of incredibly cheap bosses the game throws at you.

** In the series, the villainous Cell is fully aware of how awesome these are, and proceeds to use his superior speed to just swipe them from the support character who brought them for the team's big showdown against him.

** Debuted in ''Game/MegaMan 2'', and [[MemeticMutation famously kept until the very end when fighting]] [[BlowYouAway AirMan]].
** The SequelSeries ''MegaManX'' however had the rarer (four in the early games (X1-X3), and later only ''two'') but refillable Sub Tanks instead. These are carried over to the later SequelSeries in the timeline.

** In the ''MegaManZero'' series, there are Cyber Elves. They vary in function, but some can heal you partially or completely or even become Sub Tanks. Using any of the Fusion Elves (all of the ones that heal you or become a Sub Tank are Fusion Elves) even once results in them dying permanently and you receive an end of the level score penalty, however. That is, unless you're in Zero 3's Cyberspace, in which case, certain Fusion Elves are automatically activated without dying (though, none of those are of the healing variety and you're automatically penalized every time you go in there, except for one instance).

* The Bacta Tanks from the ''JediKnight'' series are a delayed healing alternative to regular instant-effect medpacks. They are very much sought after until you learn the Force Heal magic.

* ''DragonQuest'' games have most things with [[WorldTree Yggdrasil]] (or just 'World Tree') in their name. The leaves tend to revive one ally, while dew heals the party. They can usually not be bought. NPCs that give either one, which appear in some games, will not give you one if you already have one in your inventory.

[[quoteright:100:[[VideoGame/MegaMan http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/emergency_energy_tank.jpg]]]]:

* Potions in WorldOfWarcraft work like this. They can be used in battle, but can't be spammed due to a long cool down that affects all potion usage. As such one must know when to use potions to avoid wasting it.

* Jenka in ''CaveStory'' will give you a life pot about 1/4 of the way through the game. You can use it at the inventory screen to heal all of your HP, but only once, and you can only carry one at a time, so you have to go back to Jenka to get another one. It's a bit annoying how you have to go through the entire labyrinth just to get another one if you happen to have used yours during the battle with Balrog.

[[Game/MegaMan http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/emergency_energy_tank.jpg]]
[[caption-width:100:[-[[TheSoup Let's take some "E"!]]-] ]]

* Possibly an unintentional version in the ''DantesInferno'' game: By spending "soul" points (rather than collecting relics a la GodOfWar), you can purchase health and mana upgrades. When you purchase them, it also gives you the bonus of refilling the gauge to maximum. Because these upgrades can be purchased pretty much whenever you're permitted to pause, you can refill your health and mana at will in the middle of a fight, which helps to balance out the slew of incredibly cheap bosses the game throws at you.