History Main / JustAddWater

* The cooking of poffin in the ''{{Pokemon}} Diamond and Pearl'' games: berry + mixing = ...bread? Though, to be fair, there is visibly batter in the mixer before you throw the berries in.
** Less excusable is Pokéblock creation in ''{{Pokemon}} Ruby and Sapphire'', berries+centrifuge=... a fruit cube?

* TeamFortress2 has a large crafting system where one can take unwanted items and smelt them into scrap metal, which then gets combined into reclaimed and refined metal, which then can be made into [[NiceHat the game's ultimate goal]]. Specific recipes also exist to craft specific other items and weapons without having to wait for the random drop system to give them to you.

** However, you only need two items, yet the result features more. For example, a Paddlesaw is made from a paddle and a chainsaw, yet the final result has ''two'' chainsaws.

* DeadRising let's you make all orts of incredibly destructive weapons using random things found around the game world and liberal use of a seemingly infinite amount of duct tape.

** On a similar note, the games ''Doodle God'' and ''Doodle Devil'' for the [[{{Main/ptitle90i1z7ao}} iOS.]]

** On a similar note, the games ''Doodle God'' and ''Doodle Devil'' for the iOS.

* ''MonsterHunter'' is a prime example of this trope, though some combinations require either higher levels of Books of Combinations, or a certain armor skill to reach 100% probability of mixing. Some items can only be gotten by combining other combined items, and there is actually an achievement for combining everything that can be combined at least once. It really starts to get weird when you get into the Alchemy mixes, though. For some reason, wearing the right armor can allow you to combine a burnt meat and a piece of garbage to make a raw meat...

Similarly, chemists and potion makers can create any liquid or potion by mixing two liquids in kept test tubes. Of course there is a 1% to 99% chance (depending on the game) of getting a small explosion instead, which may have any effect from simply coating the face with a harmless dark, dusty substance, to changing the potion maker into an animal.

* The ''PaperMario'' games. In fact, you don't even start ''out'' with the ability to cook with two items! Just one.

** In ''Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door'', Zess T. can only cook with one item at a time until and unless you retrieve a cookbook; it's easy enough to get to, but it's not like it practically falls into your normal path the way the first game's does.
** In ''Super Paper Mario'', Flipside has a chef who can only cook with one item at a time; the chef in Flopside, on the other hand, can cook with two.

** However it is a bit of a head-scratcher that almost every crafting profession requires copious amounts of odd ingredients, but '''none''' of the alchemy recipes require ''water'' to mix the herbs in.

[[AC:MMORPGs]]

* [[''Minecraft'']] lives and breathes this trope. Items are assembled by actually more or less drawing what you what with the requisite materials. A torch is a stick with a lump of coal on top, a bookcase is wooden boards with books in the middle, a pickaxe is two sticks end to end with three blocks of the head's material (wood, stone, iron, or diamond) crosswise at the top.

* ''Minecraft'' lives and breathes this trope. Items are assembled by actually more or less drawing what you what with the requisite materials. A torch is a stick with a lump of coal on top, a bookcase is wooden boards with books in the middle, a pickaxe is two sticks end to end with three blocks of the head's material (wood, stone, iron, or diamond) crosswise at the top.

* In ''DarkCloud 2'', you "invent" things (most of which have long since been invented) by taking pictures of random stuff, and combining them for inspiration. Then, you need a certain number of several raw materials to make it, and there you go!

* In ''[=~Star Ocean: The Second Story~=]'', there are only six ingredients (meat, seafood, eggs/dairy, fruit, vegetable, grain), but with just two of them, you can make anything. You can also cook items like shark fin soup or cheese pizza with one ingredient.
* Alchemy in ''DragonQuestVIII''
* Every single one of the recipes in all of Gust's Atelier games. The entire series of games is based on this trope. Some games force you to use special utensils for certain recipes, but only until your Alchemy level is high enough.
* The ''PaperMario'' games. In fact, you don't even start ''out'' with the ability to cook with two items! Just one.
** In the original, Tayce T. can only cook with one ingredient at a time, but after you gain a Cookbook (a very likely possibility in the normal course of a game) and give it to her, she can cook with two.
** In ''Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door'', Zess T. can only cook with one item at a time until and unless you retrieve a cookbook; it's easy enough to get to, but it's not like it practically falls into your normal path the way the first game's does.
** In ''Super Paper Mario'', Flipside has a chef who can only cook with one item at a time; the chef in Flopside, on the other hand, can cook with two.
* Averted in ''HarvestMoon: Friends of Mineral Town''. Not only can you use up to eight ingredients in cooking (not counting spices), but you also have to choose the right utensils to make the recipie! Luckily, most of them are fairly intuitive, except for the ultra-special recipies.
* In ''TheLegendOfZelda: The Wind Waker'', a potion maker can make any of his wares from a single type of Chu jelly, though he needs several units for a full batch. Possibly justified as it he might be simply distilling or refining the jelly in some way. In ''Twilight Princess'', you can drink the jelly straight for the same effects.
* The cooking of poffin in the ''{{Pokemon}} Diamond and Pearl'' games: berry + mixing = ...bread?
** To be fair, there is visibly batter in the mixer before you throw the berries in.
** Less excusable is Pokéblock creation in ''{{Pokemon}} Ruby and Sapphire'', berries+centrifuge=... a fruit cube?
*** Umm, ever seen fruit leather? it could well be made in a machine similar in fashion to them, drying and compressing as it goes.
* In a similar vein, the entirety of ''The Secret Island of Dr. Quandary'' is based around collecting various items (such as ABC gum) and mixing them all together in a giant magical cauldron so that you don't have to spend the rest of your life forced to solve math puzzles while trapped inside the body of a troll doll.
* Usually averted in ''FinalFantasyXI'': Most recipes, while maybe not including every last little spice, come across as fairly realistic in terms of ingredients. What isn't averted is justified, as crafting as [=PCs=] go about it is an essentially magical process.
* ''{{Arcanum}}'' has this for all of its inventions, although some items may require a chain of creations: say, iron ore and steel to make pure ore and pure ore and a handle. Notably, it does this in violation of conservation of mass, where not only can you lose weight from it (which makes some sense) but you can also gain weight.

* ''{{Wizardry}} VIII''. Moreover, two source items, required skill and its value are moddable properties of item. Engineering (Gadgeteer class) and Alchemy (Alchemist class) skills are widely used that way. You can get extra profit from Alchemy combining 2 cheap item into 1 expensive or at least turn 2 heaps of rather pitiful items into 1 heap of really useful ones.
* Aversion: ''{{Fallout}} 3'' has Four Ingredient "[[http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Schematics Cooking]]".

* Averted in PuzzlePirates. Crafting alchemistry items involves mixing primary colours to make secondary colours, then piping the secondary colours to their containers. In multiple iterations, typically.

** ''Daggerfall'' evades the question altogether by only allowing people who belong to a Temple to bring ingredients to a potion-maker.
** But in ''Oblivion'', once you get that 100 Alchemy (not that hard), all you technically need is ''one'' ingredient and a mortar. {{Just Add Water}} indeed.

* A ''lot'' of equipment can be made with just a base item and several stacks of the needed minerals in Ace Online. However, you '''do''' need to use the Factory (Or the Laboratory for enchanting/gambling weapons) in Arlington or Bygeniou city to assemble those items.
* Averted with WorldOfWarcraft's later Engineering recipes, where you have to build the parts first; If you break it down into the smallest pieces, many recipes take upwards of 10 parts.
** While usually played straight with everything but engineering, special mention should be made of cooking, where they decided that two parts was too complicated and removed spices from the game. You can now make a spicy dish with one piece of meat and nothing else.
* ''Power Stone 2'' lets you mix 2 items to get a new one. Obtaining multiple copies of ones you already own would make the chances of it appearing during a fight higher.

* One of the town upgrades in BreathOfFire 2 is a restaurant of sorts, where you can combine up to 4 items together, often with extremely implausible results, such as making gold bars from spices and soup, octopi from worms and roast beef and frisbees from curealls.
* Averted in EVEOnline. Even the simplest manufactured items are just that - manufactured. You get the minerals (from mining, the player market, refining etc.), a blueprint and bake them in a production slot. This may take anywhere from a second to a few weeks, in the case of supercapital ships. Also, the capital ships and T2/T3 ships need more components - which have to be built from minerals, reverse engineered from ancient relics (well... ancient AI spaceships you destroyed and tried to analyze a bit) and some parts can only be bought on the NPC market (which works very differently from most MMOs - while the supply itself is infinte, it comes in a steady pace. And the more there is in a station, the cheaper it is. And every station in the galaxy is covered by some PC merchant who buys them when the price is right...). Not to mention the research you have to do upfront to even be able to produce it (in the case of T2/T3 ships) and in some cases to actually make profit (production time and efficiency research). And did I mention the skills you need to build the advanced ships? And you can't rush it either - they train in realtime, just like all the other skills in the game. All in all, if you start a carrier as an industrialist, you still may never ever get to make a single mothership. And a single mothership sold can easily yield you enough ingame money to play the game for ten years without having to pay the subscription.
* MonsterHunter is a prime example of this trope, though some combinations require either higher levels of Books of Combinations, or a certain armor skill to reach 100% probability of mixing. Some items can only be gotten by combining other combined items, and there is actually an achievement for combining everything that can be combined at least once. It really starts to get weird when you get into the Alchemy mixes, though. For some reason, wearing the right armor can allow you to combine a burnt meat and a piece of garbage to make a raw meat...
* Online time-killer [[http://wittyrpg.com Game!]] has two major game sections that run on this trope. You can combine items with duct tape to create more useful items, or try your hand at cooking.
* You rarely get to see what you're ''actually'' making in ''{{CityOfHeroes}}'', some of the recipes are... odd... Some examples:
** Inanimate Carbon Rod + Boresight + Shiny Ring = Piston Boots!
** Mathematical Proof + Gold Brick + A Fortune + Sapphire + a chunk of {{Unobtanium}} = A Fusion Generator! And you only need one of each item!

* In ''Zoo World'' you can build a rose garden simply by gathering five roses of each of the primary colors. To level it up you need to gather additional roses of additional colors, but no sweat - roses of secondary colors can be created by combining primary colors.
* Subverted in the obscure adventure game ''Muscarine'' where combining blue snow and yellow snow is '''not''' how to get green snow. (You still have to try to receive a hint about the proper method, though.)
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*** Umm, ever seen fruit leather? it could well be made in a machine similar in fashion to them, drying and compressing as it goes. {{So Yeah}}

* Averted in EVEOnline. Even the simplest manufactured items are just that - manufactured. You get the minerals (from mining, the player market, refining etc.), a blueprint and bake them in a production slot. This may take anywhere from a second to a few weeks, in the case of supercapital ships. Also, the capital ships and T2/T3 ships need more components - which have to be built from minerals, reverse engineered from ancient relics (well... ancient AI spaceships you destroyed and tried to analyze a bit) and some parts can only be bought on the NPC market (which works very differently from most MMOs - while the supply itself is infinte, it comes in a steady pace. And the more there is in a station, the cheaper it is. And every station in the galaxy is covered by some PC merchant who buys them when the price is right...). Not to mention the research you have to do upfront to even be able to produce it (in the case of T2/T3 ships) and in some cases to actually make profit (production time and efficiency research). And did I mention the skills you need to build the advanced ships? And you can't rush it either - they train in realtime, just like all the other skills in the game. All in all, if you start a carrier as an industrialist, you still may never ever get to make a single mothership. And a single mothership sold can easily yield you enough ingame money to play the game for ten years without having to pay the subscription. SoYeah.

* This troper once wrote an adventure game where you could end the world (and lose the game) by creating a black hole. How? Simply find [[IncrediblyLamePun a black half and two black quarters]]...
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