History Main / GiveMeYourInventoryItem

* A tricky example in ''VideoGame/TheWitcher''. The player comes across a lady who needs a potion to ease her son's slow, painful death. However you cannot commonly buy such potions in this game, but you can ''make'' them. This requires meditating for a certain amount of time, but once you've done this there's a good chance that the woman will have disappeared, never to be seen again.

* Freeware game ''VideoGame/GodOfThunder'' had a few "give me something" characters as well. Sometimes you get a hint to continue the game, sometimes an item, but one simply says "Thanks" when you give 100 jewels.
* Subverted in ''{{The 7th Saga}}'': a girl asks for a topaz (you sell for money), in exchange for a secret. When you give her... she tells you she'll get married. And laughs at your face.
* ''[[ArcanumOfSteamworksAndMagickObscura Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura]]'' does this a ''lot.'' It all starts when you walk into an antique shop in the first town and have to trade a camera (but you should find another solution, [[GuideDangIt as the camera has a much better use much later]]) for information, and doesn't ever let up - though admittedly, given the experience rewards, it can help a lot to do some [[FetchQuest tedious item-gathering]].
** Nearly everything in Arcanum is absolutely persistent, though; you just have to break out of the traditional RPG mindset to take advantage of this fact. The guy who wants your camera? You can give it to him and lose an opportunity later, or do the standard RPG quest to find the information you need to continue. Or you can give him the camera then pickpocket it back from him later. You can also let yourself into the back room of his store by either picking the lock or pickpocketing the key off him and finding the information you need in his records. (You can also help yourself to his store inventory in this room, which means you can steal all of his gold by ''stealing everything he has for sale, selling it to him, then walking into his back room to steal it back and sell it back to him again''.) These alternate solutions are facilitated by the fact that this particular NPC has really crap perception skills compared to most, ''especially'' other shopkeepers.

* A tricky example in ''TheWitcher''. The player comes across a lady who needs a potion to ease her son's slow, painful death. However you cannot commonly buy such potions in this game, but you can ''make'' them. This requires meditating for a certain amount of time, but once you've done this there's a good chance that the woman will have disappeared, never to be seen again.

* ''{{Okami}}'' does this once or twice (most of the time it's puzzle items) but as Ammy gets stronger with praise, it makes sense for her to give in to the demands of the little people.

* ''{{Kingdom of Loathing}}'' has an optional quest where you bring a guard a healing potion. Said healing potion is cheap, and the guard gives you the money for it. Indecently, he gives you the money first, bringing back the potion is optional.
** This also introduces the resident healer (Doc Galaktik) to new players who might not have thoroughly explored the town.
* ''AtlanticaOnline'' does this quite often, but in many (and sometimes unexpected) variations. In at least one case, you bring the item only to have the NPC respond he actually doesn't need it anymore, and gives it back to you and suggests using it for some ItemCrafting. In other cases, a quest may ask you to craft something, but you don't need to give it to the NPC as proof.

* While most WorldOfWarcraft quests require items that can only be obtained while the player has the quests, some require the players to provide actual inventory items they could otherwise use. Before each capital city had tabards, the main way to get reputation was to turn in large amounts of cloth. Learning how to smelt dark iron or become a Goblin Engineer will cost you regular goods. Some dailies require players to craft items (food or gems/jewelry) and turn them over, but generally compensate well enough even to justify buying ingredients if necessary.

* In ''PerfectDark'', you must sacrifice one of your weapons in order to progress through the last level. Luckily, you won't need all of them to defeat the final boss.

* ''Riven: The sequel to Myst'' opens with Atrus giving you a "trap book" and a journal. once you link to the eponymously named Age, though, a guard commands you to give him the trap book, over and over...in a language we don't know, and even in bad D'ni at one point. Eventually, he just steals it from you. After you get it back later, Gehn himself politely asks for it, which is at least a little nicer.

** Also from ''Zelda'', the well trading sequence in ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask Majora's Mask]]'' is based on useful inventory items instead of the usual event items. Tip: Don't go in there without bringing a blue potion and many seeds.

* In ''MagiciansQuestMysteriousTimes,'' various special quest characters will frequently ask for items. For example, a yeti who wants to have a feast might ask for a specific fish, or a dragon who's sick will ask for Dragon Scales (a magic ingredient) to heal himself.

** In ''FinalFantasyIVTheAfterYears'', Porom's challenge dungeon is full of this. The problem comes when you realize you're timed, and you've only got one good fighter on your team, so a smart player will be running away from all battles... which means that said player won't have the money necessary to buy much of the expensive armor that the {{NPC}}s tend to request, especially since running away from battles always has a decent chance of you dropping 25% as much Gil as you would've gotten from winning that battle. Just one of the many reasons Porom's challenge dungeon is a ScrappyLevel.

** The GBA remake of ''FinalFantasyVI'' has a malicious variant called a Glutturn that demands an item, and if not promptly given said item, will proceed to assault the party with some downright deadly attacks, and will unleash an even nastier one upon its demise. Killing it or giving it an item results in zero rewards, but additional copies of some of the game's best accessories can be stolen from them.

** Also from ''Zelda'', the well trading sequence in ''[[TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask Majora's Mask]]'' is based on useful inventory items instead of the usual event items. Tip: Don't go in there without bringing a blue potion and many seeds.

** In ''LinksAwakening'', at one point late in the game a monster can be found in a cave on the beach who claims to have found a special item, but will only give it to you if you give up the item in your B slot. Give up an item you don't need anymore (like the Shovel) and you get the Boomerang, which is [[EleventhHourSuperpower DEFINITELY a special item]].

** The "wimpy" knight (who [[OvershadowedByAwesome cannot lift and throw a barrel]]) in ''SkywardSword'' makes you give him a stamina potion so he can do push-ups (he can only manage a few at a time). A while later...he makes you give him ''another'' stamina potion. But a while after ''that'', he's able to lift a barrel ''[[SuperStrength with one hand]]'', does [[LookWhatICanDoNow thousands of pushups in a row]] ''as a warmup'', and lets you play a minigame where he hurls large pumpkins into the air so you can shoot arrows at them.

* In the game ''{{Faxanadu}}'', you must revive three fountains to obtain passage to Mascon, the misty area. Reviving one of them requires you to give up an Elixir, the game's AutoRevive item.
* During the Colosseum event in ''{{Breath of Fire}} II'', Ryu has to give Rand all of his money. Thankfully, you can bank your money beforehand, and dutifully give Rand your nothing with no ill effect.
* In the SNES quasi-RTS OgreBattle, episode IV, March of the Black Queen, you will have NPC characters that require fetch quests, lengthy ChainOfDeals for more items, and at least one [[DealWithTheDevil deal]] that involves your hero's Sword of Virtue. (And if your hero is less than pious, the demon will join your side.)
* The Magic Pots of the ''FinalFantasy'' series give good experience at the expense of one or more elixirs, the most expensive and rare health item in the series. When you fight them, they exclaim, "Gimme an elixir", and when you do, they run away, leaving you with a generous helping of experience points.

->''"Gimme Elixir!"''

* There are a couple of these in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins''. In Lothering, three separate side quests ask you to hand over three simple health potions, poisons, and traps--all products of the game's three crafting skills that you may or may not have learned by that point. The Blackstone Irregulars want health poultices, the Mages' Collective wants you to bribe the Templars with some lyrium potions, and a shady character wants garnets. Also, the armies you gather to help you end the blight each ask for some variety of supplies; dwarves ask for gems, mages ask for runes, etc.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Disgaea}}'' series has the Dark Assembly, where you have NPC senators vote on various proposals you put forth (for effects like unlocking new character classes, making the enemies stronger or getting more EXP from the next thing you kill.) The standard way to make the senators more likely to vote in favor of your proposal is to bribe them by giving them items from your inventory. Inverted slightly in Disgaea 2 and 3, where under certain conditions you can make the senators give you things from ''their'' inventory - though usually by the time you can do this, their stuff is pretty worthless.

* In ''MonsterRancher DS,'' the first time you go to the Kawrea Volcano errantry, you will find a burnt-up tree with a single Golden Peach on it. The Golden Peach is one of the most useful items--it allows you to add an entire year to the lifespan of any monster--but the first time, you're supposed to use the Peach to heal an injured Phoenix. You ''could'' abscond with it and use it on your monster, but... [[VideogameCrueltyPotential are you really so heartless?]]

** ''Subverted'' in the expansion to BG2, where an innocent commoner is killed before the player's eyes by a stray shot in a besieged city. His young child begs the player for help: and the player has the option of refusing, or merely comforting him for his loss. If they have a rod of resurrection, however, they can choose to use one of its limited charges to restore the commoner, who thanks you profusely. This gets you a point of reputation, but by this point you're likely at the maximum of 20 anyway.

* ''{{Divinity 2}}'' has a quest that does this with stat points as the given item. The sacrifice is hardly even noticeable, but they are ''stat points''. That's like the RPG version of organ donation.

* The Magic Pots of the ''FinalFantasy'' series give good experience at the expense of one or more elixirs, the most expensive and rare health item in the series. When you fight them they exclaim, "Gimme an elixir" and when you do they run away leaving you with a generous helping of experience points.
** Near the beginning of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII'' (NES/DS) you find the first of the game's rare and highly useful "Elixir" items. About one town over from the guy who demands one for his sick wife. Then you have to do this two or three time more later on.

*** Also of note is "Gimme Cat", a normal monster that [[ExploitedTrope exploits]] this trope by trying to fool you into giving it a diamond (note: this is a game where other gems are thrown at you by the bucket load, while you'll be happy to ever actually find one single diamond). Give it the item and it runs away. However, tfact it uses the normal battle music should clue you in about the deception attempt.

*** It also has Magic Pots as monsters, who'll chase your units around and keep yelling "Gimme Elixir!" at them until you listen, attack them, or complete the mission. Giving them an Elixir only gets you a low value item, and attacking them makes them start OHKOing your units, so simply ignoring them is the best course of action.

* ''{{Okami}}'' does this once or twice (most of the time it's puzzle items) but as Ammy gets stronger with praise it makes sense for her to give in to the demands of the little people.

*** Majora's Mask has two occasions wherein an NPC will ask for a health potion. The first, required to advance the plot, is for the injured witch Kotake, though you'll get the potion for free if you go tell her sister; the other is for an invisible soldier who will thank you by giving his [[PerceptionFilter stone mask]]. There's also [[ThatOneLevel the dried up well]] where Gibdos demand bottle contents to open doors, turning a small dungeon into an obnoxious two-hour FetchQuest.

*** Majora's Mask has two occasions wherein an NPC will ask for a health potion. The first, required to advance the plot, is for the injured witch Kotake, though you'll get the potion for free if you go tell her sister; the other is for an invisible soldier who will thank you by giving his [[PerceptionFilter stone mask]].

* In ''TheAmazonTrail'', when you offer to trade with a conquistador, he responds with "I do not trade - I take!" There are two ways to get out of it: give him a good percentage of your hard-earned inventory until he finally says "I'm getting a little tired of trading", or [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential give him an herb that induces vomiting]]. [[KickTheSonOfABitch Guess which option the Jaguar endorses]].

* Late in ''VideoGame/DeuxExHumanRevolution'', a friendly hacker will ask for a gun to defend himself against the attacking mercenaries. If you comply, he will find you later to reward you with a nifty amount of cash; if you don't, he dies soon thereafter. The problem is, your inventory is very limited, and you are not likely to carry around a spare firearm to give away. Thankfully, there is weapons vendor just downstairs from there, so reloading a saved game and a short detour fix that.

* There are a couple of these in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins''. The Blackstone Irregulars want health poultices, the Mages' Collective wants you to bribe the Templars with some lyrium potions, and a shady character wants garnets. Also, the armies you gather to help you end the blight each ask for some variety of supplies; dwarves ask for gems, mages ask for runes, etc.

* Occasionally in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', you'll find a guy just setting around in the Wasteland, begging for Purified Water, a rare commodity in Post-Apocalyptic America, and you can give him yours. The only reward for this is a few points of Karma.

* ''KingdomHearts'' has this in Wonderland, where you have to give the flowers an Elixir. In return, they'll either give you items or make you return to your normal size. The one which changes your size is necessary to finish the plot, but the rest are usually worth it, since Elixirs can be picked up by destroying enemies fairly easily. It only works once (except for the size change), but the flowers will accept Elixirs and return nothing, so make sure you remember which flowers you've hit up!
** Present in ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3D'', where the abilities on the Ducky Goose and Drak Quack's link boards can only be accessed by sacrificing items, ranging from common to very valuable. To compensate, the amount of link points needed to actually activate their abilities is much lower then that of other dream eaters.

* This comes up occasionally in the MassEffect games. From time to time, you'll encounter injured [=NPCs=]. In exchange for a few Paragon points and information of questionable usefulness, you can give them medigels. This will sometimes be [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] by your more Renegade aligned squadmates to the effect of "Why are we bothering?".

* In ''VideoGame/{{Tales of Symphonia}}'', the party encounters a group of people and one of them walks into Colette, dropping a [[FrothyMugsOfWater bottle of potion]]. They get all pissy and demand you go buy them a new one and won't let you leave. The party will eventually find out the other group is in fact [[spoiler:impersonating the protagonists in order to cheat money and items from people, including a unique book they needed from the local governor]]. It is possible to learn all this before giving them the potion, but you are still not allowed to refuse.