History Main / SoLongAndThanksForAllTheGear

In VideoGames, this is the annoying effect of having potentially great equipment stolen from you because the character wearing them has left the party. If they come back, their equipment may have fallen victim to the SortingAlgorithmOfWeaponEffectiveness. Or they may have found new, better equipment and ditched what they had before. Or they get themselves killed. Either way, you better hope they didn't have anything powerful and [[PermanentlyMissableContent irreplaceable]] on them. Kinder games will dump the gear back into your inventory.

Some Meta-Humor is often used here; if you the player know the character is leaving, you'll unequip everything from them. Since "you" the character couldn't possibly know the character is leaving, some people will comment that the reason they left is because you took all their stuff.

** In ''VideoGame/HyperdimensionNeptuniaReBirth1'', Noire joins the party for a early chapter before leaving for a while, taking her equipment with her. However there's only two things she can be equipped with that aren't unique to her, her armour and her game disc, both of which are [[SortingAlgorithmOfWeaponEffectiveness early-game junk]] anyway.

* Happens about two thirds of the way through ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'', wherein Snake recovers all of his equipment after a NoGearLevel sequence, except for all of his previously captured animals and collected food (including the pricelessly valuable Tsuchinoko, if you were lucky enough to find it - fortunately you can catch it again just after getting your gear back). Humorously, you can call [=EVA=] about this, and she will confess that she rifled through your pack for instant noodles, but the rest of Snake's pack was emptied by Ocelot because "he wanted to eat the same things Snake did".

** ''Videogame/EarthBound'' provides at least some acknowledgment of this. If one of your party members is kidnapped[=/=]goes on a VisionQuest[=/=]discovers True Love[=/=]returns to their home planet while holding a key item (such as the Pencil Eraser), then said item will be delivered to Ness's sister's item storage, [[AntiFrustrationFeatures so you aren't left locked out of certain areas]]. In some places, if you know a party member is about to leave, this can be useful to help save inventory space.
** ''VideoGame/{{Mother 3}}'':

** Normally, losing a character would mean completely losing their inventory. More often than not, most player would rather reset the entire chapter than lose a valuable item (or unit). Since ''Shadow Dragon'', any items that were in a fallen ally will automatically be transferred into the convoy.
** Certain chapters have NPC allies, who are hated by players as occasionally they will kill an enemy that can drop a valuable or useful item, and if an NPC does this then that item is lost to you.
** In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheSacredStones'', [[spoiler:Orson]] betrays you and take any items that he had with you. Not that it really hurts you too much since he's only in one chapter outside of the main story. However, it can easily can be averted once you know that it's coming and make him a meatshield.
** Averted in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance'', though [[spoiler:Shinon and Gatrie]] leaves the party, any items they had are automatically dropped in the convoy.

Some Meta-Humor is often used here; if you the player know the character is leaving, you'll unequip everything from them. Since "you" the character couldn't possible know the character is leaving, some people will comment that the reason they left is because you took all their stuff.

** In ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTensei'', the Chaos Hero will at one point decide that he needs more power in order to defeat a boss, and wants to fuse himself with a demon to do so. The next time you're at the Jakyou Manor, he'll automatically pick the highest-level demon you have (thus usually your most powerful and necessary one) and use that one. And while he does get a fair bit more powerful from this, after the boss fight he'll decide that you're weak and "only holding him back", and leaves the party forever. Actually a JustifiedTrope from an in-universe perspective; the Chaos philosophy is all about power and self-importance (which doesn't make it any less irritating).

*** Occurs nearly every ten minutes. At least you get the gear back when the party members return, but that's small comfort when the fancy new super gear you blew all your cash on wanders off before you can use it. However, the BagOfSharing effect means that even when two of your party members decide to split off from the main group, they can use items in the shared inventory and even buy items for the other party members (who are now halfway across the continent) to equip later.
*** The {{Guest Star Party Member}}s are an exception, however. You can remove Beatrix's armor when she fights alongside Steiner in Disk 3 (although there's no real reason, considering that you'll be able to buy it soon enough anyway), but when Marcus leaves the party after you escape from the Alexandria dungeon in Disk 2, his equipment is gone for good. This is particularly bad if he's got a Mythril Sword equipped, since you need that blade to be able to synthesize some of the very best armor in the game.
*** The Mythril Sword loss is only a problem if the player doesn't think to visit Esto Gaza before going to the Desert Palace. However, you can give Beatrix one of the summoning items and [[PermanentlyMissableContent lose it for good]].

* In the Creator/ProZD video [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Osd16ILchHs "when your party member dies permanently"]], the player character cries over Archibald's fatal wound. Archibald tries to comfort him with his dying breath... until the player character immediately reveals that they're far more upset about all the good equipment and hours of level grinding that have now been wasted.

* Rather strangely done in ''VideoGame/LiveALive'' due to the fact that the Final Chapter only uses the main characters from each chapter. Not stripping Taroimo of his item-gained specials before completing Akira's chapter means you lose some equipment for Cube later on. In fact, you only get to carry forward things the people yanked into the final chapter have on them; again, this matters mostly with Akira (you'll only be able to bring the robot equipment from his chapter to the final chapter for Cube if you equip him with all of it, even though it does nothing for him.) It's also a good idea to swipe all of Mad Dog's gear for the Sundown Kid in the Wild West Chapter as well, since all of it practically doubles the Kid's stats and he's the ''only'' character in the game who can use all the gear his partner carries. The [[VideoGameRemake Remake]] however, makes anything that isn't healing items or robot HP upgrades or exclusive to the GuestStarPartyMembers available in the Final, averting this.

* ''VideoGame/ShadowHearts Covenant'' has Nicolai. He pulls a FaceHeelTurn at the end of the first dungeon, taking any equipment he's wearing (and, if you're ''really'' unfortunate, an ''Attack Boost'') with him in the process. Fortunately, [[InterfaceSpoiler his character bio lets you know it's coming]].

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[[folder:Web Original]]

** Averted in ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'' with the full-moon incident on October 4th. After all is said and done, [[spoiler:all of Shinjiro's equipment can be found packed up in a box in his room... most likely because he knew he was going off to be KilledOffForReal that night]].
** Also averted in ''VideoGame/{{Persona 5}}'' when TheMole backstabs you; their armor, accessory, and now-useless weaponry are placed back into your inventory.

* Rather strangely done in ''VideoGame/LiveALive'' due to the fact that the Final Chapter only uses the main characters from each chapter. Not stripping Taro of his item-gained specials before completing Akira's chapter means you lose some equipment for Cube later on. In fact, you only get to carry forward things the people yanked into the final chapter have on them; again, this matters mostly with Akira (you'll only be able to bring the robot equipment from his chapter to the final chapter for Cube if you equip him with all of it, even though it does nothing for him.) It's also a good idea to swipe all of Mad Dog's gear for the Sundown Kid in the Wild West Chapter as well, since all of it practically doubles the Kid's stats and he's the ''only'' character in the game who can use all the gear his partner carries.

* Averted in ''LightNovel/EienNoFilena''; when a character leaves your party, their equipment is dumped into your inventory. Curiously, this happens even when they leave involuntarily, such as when a party member ''falls off a bridge''.