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| 2 | %% The list of examples has been put into alphabetical order. |
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| 4 | %% Please add new examples in the correct order. |
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| 6 | |
| 7 | * Class skills in ''VideoGame/AdventureQuest'' generally fall under this trope, especially with the newer/revamped classes introduced after Skill Points were released. Class-based attacks and defensive skills are some of the best in the game, but nearly all of them come with prohibitively high SP costs. Class-based attacks are also prone to missing just as often as regular attacks, so using them will basically amount to wasting a boatload of SP, even if it actually does something. Okay, so what about the unchanged classes introduced before SP came along? They tend to act as a Mana sink instead; conserving Mana is very important, since you will probably need to cast a healing spell at least once a fight regardless of what armor you decide to equip. |
| 8 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Albion}}'', you're a brave space-pilot, stranded on a medieval-level world with your scientist friend. Favored weapons amongst the natives includes swords, spears and the like. In the wreck of your spaceship, you find a gun and a handful of bullets for it - and, needless to say, you're not likely to find extra ammo anywhere on the planet. Hence, you'll probably never use it at all, even as the game's progression gradually gives you access to to powerful magic-users and enchanted weapons that can equal and surpass the handgun's power - and towards the very end of the game, you actually DO find plentiful extra ammo, and more powerful guns as well. Shame you didn't use the gun back near the beginning, where it would've actually been really useful... |
| 9 | * ''VideoGame/ArcanumOfSteamworksAndMagickObscura'' features Fate Points. Put simply, they provide a guaranteed critical success to the next use of whatever specific skill you chose (pickpocket, spell, attack, etc.) or instantly refill a meter of some sort (like health). They are extremely rare (about 25 technically), only rewarded for completing specific tasks, and are sometimes rewarded for different results in the same task (in other words, impossible to collect all of them). Good luck choosing those few very special occasions to spend them on. Most players would probably default to using them to steal powerful items that could otherwise never be stolen without being caught, but even then there are more such items than you have points to spend. Although, there are several points early on where you can spend a fate point to get a DiscOneNuke that help avert this trope a bit. |
| 10 | ** To a lesser extent, high-level spell scrolls. While the idea of casting a spell without spending a ton of character points first (in a game with an AbsurdlyLowLevelCap) sounds convenient, free scrolls are fairly rare, and the prices asked for them in shops are usually too high for a single-use item. The only potential exception is Resurrect, and you'll only want it if you have powerful mages in the party, as its tech equivalent is quite a bit cheaper (and craftable). |
| 11 | * ''Franchise/BaldursGate'': |
| 12 | ** Various awesome potions and protections scrolls just pile up in your inventory until the endgame, when you don't really need them since your mages and clerics can cast far mightier buffs on you. However, ''Protection from Magic'' and ''Protection from Undead'' scrolls MAY prove useful in the final levels. And for all that's holy, do hold ''like glue'' onto that ''Cloudkill'' scroll you find in the [[ThatOneLevel Firewine Ruins]]! Party mage + Cloudkill = the BigBad's henchmen gone before they even see you. |
| 13 | ** In ''VideoGame/BaldursGateIII'', at the end of their storyline an evil [[AmnesiacHero Dark Urge]] is rewarded with the infamous spell [[OneHitKill Power Word: Kill]]. However, they can only cast it ''once'' in the entire playthrough. |
| 14 | * ''VideoGame/TheBardsTale'' has Adder Stones, which allow you to heal instantly, restrain enemies, become immortal for a brief period of time, and do several other cool things. This can result in completely unnecessary hoarding in case they need to become immortal later -- people have died sitting on a decent collection of adder stones and entered the final boss fight with 102 stones (one is needed to heal, and 3 for immortality). |
| 15 | * The golden potato in ''VideoGame/BarkleyShutUpAndJamGaiden''. OneHitKO on any enemy, including the final boss. |
| 16 | * ''VideoGame/BoxxyQuestTheGatheringStorm'' has a few rare, single-use items, like the Goddess Statue, a [[SaveToken portable save point]] that breaks after one use. (There’s a fairly easy way to trade it for an unbreaking version, but the game itself never actually tells you this). There’s also the Purity Crystal, a Megalixer-type curative given to you just before the final dungeon. The DevelopersRoom implies it was added at the last minute, specifically to invoke this trope. |
| 17 | * ''VideoGame/BreathOfFire'': |
| 18 | ** ''VideoGame/BreathOfFireIII'' has a pair of skills. Bonebreak is one of the game's strongest attack skills, and Celerity bestows godlike stat buffs. Both skills are usable at zero ability point cost. The catch? After using either skill, ''you have to wait five in-game hours for it to recharge''. Considering that the game lasts about 30 hours ''and'' you get neither skill until very late in the game (and after tons of long, hard level grinding), it goes without saying that you'll probably never see either put to use until it's Final Boss Time--assuming you feel like expending the effort to acquire the skills in the first place! |
| 19 | ** The dragon form in ''VideoGame/BreathOfFireDragonQuarter'' is so powerful it can demolish any enemy with ease, even bosses. But using it increases your D-Counter, which triggers a NonstandardGameOver when it hits 100%, and there's no way to reduce it. And it still increases gradually by being in battles and taking steps in the world even if you don't use your dragon powers. |
| 20 | * Subverted in ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger''. Megalixirs heal everyone fully HP and MP-wise, and Tabs permanently boost stats. As such, you would think they'd be rare. The thing is, if you know where to [[VideoGameStealing steal them]], you can have as many as you want. There's one room in [[BonusDungeon the Black Omen]] filled with monsters that you can snag Megalixirs from, and these monsters ''respawn''. The average player will usually go into NewGamePlus with a full complement of Megalixirs as a result. Tabs are a bit trickier, mostly because the monsters you can steal them from tend to stay dead once you kill them -- even, in the case of Panels and Speed Tabs, if one then goes back in time to do it again. |
| 21 | * ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' has the not-that-common Ring of Sacrifice and the Rare Ring of Sacrifice, which prevent you from losing souls and humanity upon death, and the latter breaking the otherwise hard to remove Curse ailment...and break upon use. And then there's the Ring of Favor and Protection, which gives a boost to health, stamina, and carrying capacity, with only two (and one of them is well-hidden) in the game, and they break upon being removed. And then there's the Divine Blessing: A very large heal that cures any ailment except curse, and of which only a limited number exist in each playthrough. In the DLC there is the Elizabeth's Mushroom, which provides a unique and very useful health regeneration effect. Those who use a Divine Blessing or Elizabeth's Mushroom in multiplayer will often be accused of being a hacker because of this trope. |
| 22 | * ''VideoGame/DragonQuest'': |
| 23 | ** In the earlier ''Dragon Quest/Dragon Warrior'' games, you can pick a leaf from the World Tree which has the power to resurrect a dead party member without having to use a costly magic spell that has a chance of not working. However, you can only pick one of these at a time, and those that are hidden around the world were One-Time items. (A few of the games have them as Casino prizes, but that requires a lot of luck or SaveScumming.) ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVIII'' permits you to buy or otherwise legitimately acquire two such leaves; however, it's possible to smuggle a third into the inventory via the game's item-crafting system. |
| 24 | ** ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIV'' boasts the World Dew, medicine derived from World Leaves that can heal your whole party. Again, you can only have one at a time; though it follows a "one at a time" rule quite similar to the game's Leaf of World Tree. Fortunately, despite the limited supply, both were free. |
| 25 | ** ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVII'' also boasts the World Dew, but unlike World Leaves, you have to ''buy'' it from a shop that was always crowded, ''and'' wait your turn in line. ''And'' it's possible for them to "run out" before you even got to the counter... |
| 26 | ** The wisdom rings are too awesome to use as well as it's rare, one of the only ways to recover magic points, and breaks after several uses. Same with Elfin elixirs which recovers all MP. Some games have them offered as casino prizes. |
| 27 | * ''VideoGame/DragonsDogmaII'' has the Unmaking Arrows, exceedingly rare and exceptionally costly arrows for archers that can [[OneHitKO one-shot]] any enemy it hits, even the FinalBoss. Once the arrow is fired, however, the game immediately auto-saves, so in the event that you miss, you cannot use SaveScumming to take another shot with the Unmaking Arrow you just used. |
| 28 | * In the ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' CRPG ''VideoGame/RavenloftStrahdsPossession'', the heroes can find a handful of Arrows of Slaying Undead very early in the game. There are only a handful available in the game. Good luck deciding when to use them. |
| 29 | |
| 30 | * ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'': |
| 31 | ** High quality arrows qualify as a series-wide example. Until being introduced in ''Skyrim''[='s=] ''Dawnguard'' DLC, there has never been a way to craft your own arrows (outside of {{Game Mod}}s). While you could find merchants with restocking sets of lower quality arrows (Iron, Steel, maybe Silver if you're lucky), high quality arrows (Daedric, Ebony, Glass) are typically only found in small, finite quantities (if available for sale at all) and otherwise must be looted from high-level enemies and dungeons. This leads to many players saving their best arrows only for the strongest foes, while making do primarily with lesser quality but more readily available arrows. |
| 32 | ** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]'': |
| 33 | *** The SkeletonKey is a lockpick which will never fail, but only has 50 "uses" before it will be gone. And by the time you get it (at the very end of the ThievesGuild quest line), your Security skill is likely high enough that you don't really need it anyway. |
| 34 | *** The [[InASingleBound Scrolls of]] [[IcarusAllusion Icarian Flight]] can be incredibly useful [[LethalJokeItem if used properly]], but there are only three of them and no way to get more. |
| 35 | *** Only one Elixir of the Imperfect can be had in the ''Tribunal'' expansion, and even getting it is tough. It's a potion that restores 20 points of Health, Magicka, and Fatigue every second for 15 seconds, essentially giving you god-like abilities for the duration. However, you only get one from the Imperfect, and unless you kill it quickly, it will use the elixir before you can kill it. |
| 36 | *** Only two Potions of Heroism exist in the game. These potions both fortify your health and fatigue by 50 points each, as well as give you a HealingFactor that restores 5 points of each per second for 60 seconds, for a total of 300. Furthermore, it both fortifies your attack and gives you a magical shield for its duration as well. |
| 37 | *** In the ''Bloodmoon'' expansion, one can find 5 Ebony Arrows of Slaying in a tree stump on Solstheim. They hit for about 5000 damage a pop, enough to kill any opponent in the game (not protected by a reflect spell) many times over (including the aforementioned Imperfect). But the odds of getting these arrows back is so low that you will almost always save them for a rainy day (that will probably never come until there is nothing left worth killing with them). |
| 38 | ** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'': |
| 39 | *** Potions and antidotes. You'll instantly start collecting various buff, health and antidote potions, but when an opportunity arises to actually use them, you'll find some way to avoid 'wasting' them until that special moment when you ''really'' need them. As time passes, this simply has the effect of rendering the items useless, as a formerly effective health potion that just restores one hundredth of your now leveled-up character's hitpoints is no longer as valuable. Then you drop the junk because it weighs you down. To make room for new junk. |
| 40 | *** The Daedric Lava Whiskey from the "Wizard's Tower" expansion: Only one bottle in the game, does a slight amount of damage and paralyzes you in exchange for then healing a massive amount of health and summoning a Dremora Lord, which is one of the most powerful summonable creatures in the game |
| 41 | ** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'': |
| 42 | *** The ''Dragonborn'' expansion awards the player the ability to summon the spirit of Karstaag, an extremely powerful frost giant. The downside is that, unlike most powers, which can be used once per day, Karstaag can only be summoned three times ''ever.'' |
| 43 | *** During the Dark Brotherhood quest line in ''Skyrim'', you are tasked with assassinating the Emperor. You are given an extremely potent poisonous ingredient called the Jarrin Root to mix into his food, but it is quite easy to assassinate him [[spoiler:(except it's not actually him)]] with other methods (like a bow) and keep the ingredient for yourself. If the Dragonborn is specialized in alchemy, it can then be used to create a ridiculously powerful poison [[http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/elderscrolls/images/0/0c/Jarrinpoison.png/revision/latest?cb=20121127122121 that deals thousands of damage upon hit]], but since only one Jarrin Root exists in the entire game, you can only use it once (possibly twice if you have the Sinderion's Serendipity effect, which has a chance to duplicate a created potion). No enemy in the game can survive an optimally-prepared Jarrin Root poison, not even Legendary Dragons, [[FinalBoss Alduin]], or [[SuperBoss superbosses]] like Kaarstag or the Ebony Warrior. |
| 44 | *** High level arrows such as Ebony and Daedric greatly augment a bow's power, but are exceedingly rare. Arrows cannot be crafted in vanilla ''Skyrim'' either, hence many archer characters tend to keep them sitting in their inventories and use less powerful but more common arrow types like Elven, Orcish or Steel. ''Dawnguard'' rectifies this by allowing arrow crafting at any forge, and mods are available on PC which provide a similar service. |
| 45 | ** ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsOnline'' has the Grand Amnesty Edict, which clears up to 100,000 gold of bounty (much more than you'll ever accrue at once) one time and then disappears. One is earned by completing the Thieves Guild main questline, and it can't even be banked, transferred or traded, so most people who complete that quest have it taking up an inventory slot forever, waiting to be clicked accidentally. |
| 46 | |
| 47 | * ''VideoGame/EternalSonata'' has the Saint's Mirror item, which revives anyone that is [=KOed=] and restores them to full HP. However, there was only to be found normally as treasure in the main gameplay. Another was available as a drop from a boss fought only in [[NewGamePlus Encore Mode]]. While there was a regular enemy that dropped them in the BonusDungeon, Mysterious Unison, it was an extremely rare drop. Further complicating things in the original Platform/XBox360 version was that they carried an item weight of 10. The Platform/PlayStation3 version changed this to 2, making their inclusion in your inventory at least more practical. |
| 48 | * ''VideoGame/EtrianOdyssey'' has Formaldehydes in all games and Coupons in ''VideoGame/EtrianOdysseyIIITheDrownedCity''. To put the former's importance in perspective, the franchise places immense importance on enemy drops; they are the primary source of money and the store's wares stock depending on how many of said drops you've sold - so for example, to unlock better weapons and armour, or for that matter better medicines, you'll need to hunt the monsters whose organs form the basis of the same. Using Formaldehyde on an enemy and killing it ''in the same turn'' will guarantee it will drop ''all'' of its spoils, even its conditional drops (which typically require killing the enemy in a specific state, or in a specific way). It's possible to create more Formaldehydes in ''IV'' and onward... but they require extremely rare drops from the Sixth Stratum. Coupons, on the other hand, will halve the cost of ''any'' one given item - whether you choose to use it on the InfinityPlusOneSword or a cheap-ass Medica is your business. However, there are only eight in the game. Ever. NewGamePlus doesn't restock them. |
| 49 | * Fate in ''VideoGame/FallenLondon''. If you're not willing to [[BribingYourWayToVictory shell out the real-life cash]] for Nex, a currency that lets you access more in-game stories and areas, you can use Fate instead. However, the stories that give out Fate are so scarce and give such piddling amounts that you'll almost certainly end up hoarding them. |
| 50 | ** Darkdrop Coffees, which give you 10 free actions immediately. You get about four of them in the early game stage through tutorial cards, but after that the only sources of them are the very occasional holiday/promotion event and a rare success on a single, specific card that can only be accessed within a certain Persuasive range. |
| 51 | ** You can draw Mood cards that give you a huge +30 boost to a specific attribute. However, the effect lasts for only one hour and the cards are extremely rare (and have few practical uses for players who have already maxed out their attributes). |
| 52 | ** There's also the Magnificent Feast, an item that refreshes ''all'' your actions (up to 20 or 40 for Exceptional Friends), heals all your Wounds, Nightmares, and Irrigo, and has even more positive effects on you. Unfortunately, this magnificent item can be obtained only ''once'' per year at Christmas so you'll undoubtedly hoard it if you're aware of just how good an item it is. |
| 53 | |
| 54 | * ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'': |
| 55 | ** ''VideoGame/Fallout2'': |
| 56 | *** The Monument Chunk, a consumable chunk of rock which offered massive combat bonuses, but was available only once in the entire game. It almost always wound up in the trunk of the car until after the end of the game. You ''can'' get more, three or so more even... but that involves trying to steal from the giant stone head of your ancestor. If your Steal skill is less than 95% you're dead. The Monument deals 14,000 points of damage and melts you! |
| 57 | *** The three special Federation super-medkits which you found in the special encounter with the crashed ''Franchise/StarTrek'' shuttle. They restored your health completely, no matter how hurt you were - but there were only three in the entire game. As a result they inevitably ended up in a chest or other container, from which they would only be taken when '''really''' needed. Or not. |
| 58 | *** A DummiedOut weapon is [[Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail the Holy Hand Grenade]]. Restored by the ''Fallout Trilogy'' release and the Restoration Project mod, this weapon is hugely overpowered, but you can only find one Holy Hand Grenade. And since the throwing skill is ignored by many players, due to thrown weapons being generally not worth the hassle of investing skill points in, there's a high chance of throwing the holy hand grenade missing it's intended target entirely. |
| 59 | ** ''VideoGame/Fallout3'': |
| 60 | *** The [[{{BFG}} Experimental MIRV]]: a modified Fat Man that fires 8 mini-nukes at once. Unlocking its bunker requires you to find five holotapes hidden at various places in the Wasteland. The average player probably won't find enough mini-nukes over the course of the entire game to fire this baby more than two or three times. No fight in the game justifies the use of such firepower, so the weapon will most likely remain unused. Great for showing off, though. |
| 61 | *** The Fat Man itself is an example, as there are very few battles that justify or require its use (other than some of the Super Mutant Behemoths, or the multiple Feral Ghoul Reavers in the Presidential Metro). |
| 62 | *** The Alien Blaster has zero spread and a guaranteed CriticalHit that will disintegrate nearly any target with a headshot, but there are less than three hundred rounds of ammunition for it in the entire core game. It's also the only one of its kind, unless you find the second one in the Mobile Base Crawler near the end of ''Broken Steel'', and can only be fully repaired with Alien Epoxy. |
| 63 | *** You could also classify the Firelance under the same banner as the Alien Blaster. Only obtainable in a randomly-found event (of which you may not even notice and end up walking away from). It's a unique variant of the Alien Blaster that sets things on fire as well as having a pretty punch. Because of the fire effect, it gets an extra 50% damage from the Pyromaniac perk. Add the Xenotech perk from the ''Mothership Zeta'' DownloadableContent to add a further 20% damage to it, and you can easily drop the toughest enemies with a decent Energy Weapons skill. Sounds good and all, but the event only spawns it with 12 rounds, randomly thrown about the nearby area, so you're not likely to find even half of them. The total available ammo for it in the game is around 280: 120 from the crashed Alien ship, 12 from the Firelance event itself, and ~100-150 from Fort Independence assuming you have the Scavenger perk. |
| 64 | *** ''Mothership Zeta'' and ''Broken Steel'' also include additional ammo for the Blaster. The other alien weapons do not suffer from this, as one can acquire infinite Alien Power Modules post-DLC. |
| 65 | *** With ''Operation: Anchorage'', there is exactly one Gauss Rifle, and without Alien Epoxy from ''Mothership Zeta'', there's no way to fully repair it. Even though you could practically be swimming in its ammo late in the game, there's a hard limit on the number of shots you can fire (unless you abuse a glitch to get a nearly indestructible version from the computer simulation out into the "reality" of the Capital Wasteland). |
| 66 | *** Although it has the highest damage resistance of any armor, there is only one standard T-51b Power Armor, so it can only be partially repaired, and is best used for companion characters, where it won't degrade. Conversely, the Winterized T-51b is practically indestructible, since the main game version has the same astronomical HP as the Anchorage Simulation version. |
| 67 | ** ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'': |
| 68 | *** The Fat Man again. Just as it and its ammo were impractically rare in ''[=FO3=]'', the same applies here but in even more heartbreaking fashion. There are only 14 Mini Nukes (down to 12 if you have Wild Wasteland trait) in the entire game! |
| 69 | *** However, if you have the ''Gun Runners' Arsenal'' DLC, the unique version Esther along with its special ammo appear in the Vendortron's inventory at the Gun Runners kiosk. Among them are Mini Nukes that separate into multiple Nukes, which will fondly remind players of the Experimental MIRV. Not only that, but the special variants of the Mini Nuke can be purchased again after a couple of days have passed. They may be tremendously expensive, but you'll eventually manage it and then enjoy your fireworks. This makes Esther an InfinityPlusOneSword. |
| 70 | *** Holy Frag Grenades. Their damage and blast radius is similar to Mini Nukes, but there are only three of them so use them sparingly. Oh, you also need Wild Wasteland trait, meaning you have to choose between them and two of the mini nukes. Although the grenades are a heck of a lot lighter than the Mini Nukes and do not require a launcher to use, the throwing range is much shorter, especially if you have the Loose Cannon trait. A bad throw can see you blowing yourself up. |
| 71 | *** The Alien Blaster qualifies even more, as it requires Wild Wasteland trait to even get, and has been {{nerf}}ed from its ''Fallout 3'' counterpart and has even less available ammo. |
| 72 | *** The unique grenade machine gun Mercy. It uses 40mm grenades rather than the normal 25mm ones for the grenade machine gun. However these bulky rounds were priced, distributed, and weighted with single shot use in mind, so Mercy expends through ammo value and weight faster than anything else. It is actually pretty useful to use at Hoover Dam at the end of the game, but otherwise its overkill. Not to mention that in order to get it, you have to fight/sneak your way through a cave full of killer deathclaws, including the terrifying [[{{Superboss}} Legendary Deathclaw]]. In other words: in order to get Mercy, you have to go through a scenario in which you'd most likely need it. Perhaps it should be named "Irony" instead. |
| 73 | *** Similar to ''[=FO3=]'''s T-51b, the Remnants Power Armor, although having the highest Damage Threshold in the game, also is one of the rarest armors, has the highest rate of degradation, and is one of the most expensive to repair. Best reserved for the final battle. At least this time around there's a perk that allows you to use other power armor to repair it, but even then such armor is rare. |
| 74 | *** The physiological reevaluation done by the AutoDoc in ''Old World Blues''. Even though it could allow you to milk traits and swap them when not needed, you can only do it once. |
| 75 | ** In an in-universe example, the Brotherhood of Steel have spent the last two games/centuries collecting this sort of stuff and locking it away in their vaults, only taking it out now and then to repair, polish, etc. The original plan was to hold onto it until "the time was right" to start handing it out and/or rebuilding the wasteland. But as years gave way to decades, then centuries, the Brotherhood has become increasingly resistant to the idea of actually ''using'', let alone letting ''other people'' have access to, any of their carefully hoarded and preserved treasures. |
| 76 | ** ''VideoGame/Fallout4'' |
| 77 | *** Power Armor has been revamped. It's no longer just a set of heavy armor; now it's full on PoweredArmor. It drastically boosts your defense as well as other stats, protects you from FallingDamage should you accidentally fall off the top of a building, and just plain looks awesome. Unfortunately, the parts to the suit can get damaged and need occasional repairs. It's also powered by fusion cores, which are either hard to find in the wild, or really expensive if you buy them from merchants. This mostly restricts you to using it mostly for boss fights or for difficult dungeons... at least until you near endgame wher affording them will be significantly easier and you can stock your inventory with enough to keep moving for years. |
| 78 | *** On the subject of Power Armor, you can now outfit your suit with a functional jet pack! Helps you immensely with traversing terrain and repositioning quickly in combat, but it also sucks away your AP and drains your fusion cores at an alarming rate. |
| 79 | *** The Refreshing Beverage gives you a massive 500 HP recovery and removes ''all'' rads and addictions. Unfortunately, unless you scavenge constantly for the rare ingredients needed to cook it, you're unlikely to ever have more than 3 or 4 of them, so even in the most dire of circumstances, you'll probably never use them. |
| 80 | *** The Mysterious Serum gives you a whopping +5 Strength, +50 Damage Resistance and removes 10 rads a second over the span of one hour, with stackable effects. It becomes available after a certain quest, and you'll never have more than thirteen vials of the stuff unless you make a specific choice that gives you an unlimited supply, though only one vial and you need to go back and get another once you've used it. As you can expect, it's pretty easy to fall into the mental trap of trying to conserve these as much as possible. |
| 81 | *** The Nuka-Cide soda from the ''Nuka-World'' DLC. Even more awesome than the Refreshing Beverage, it heals an unmatched 1200 HP ''and'' boosts your max HP by 50, plus boosting your AP and max HP, your carry weight, and your rad resistance. You've got to collect one Nuka-Cola of every flavor to make one, however, so that dramatically limits how many you can brew up. |
| 82 | *** The [=HalluciGen=] gas grenades causes enemies to start hallucinating and attacking each other. You can only get them by crafting, which requires a specialized gas canister, of which there are only nine in the entire game--and one of them is used to complete a sidequest. Annoyingly, the canister are flagged as junk, and so may be automatically scrapped for the nigh-useless steel they are made of. |
| 83 | *** The Raider bosses at Nuka-World all have special grenades, but if you kill them all, you limit how many you can loot for the rest of the game. It's likely you won't have more than three or four of each at most. |
| 84 | *** If you complete his quest, the ''Yangtze'''s Captain will give you three beacons you can use to call in a tactical strike from his submarine. These can never be replenished, but because they're essentially a more-precise version of a mini-nuke, they're also not so overpowered that there's any real temptation to use them up in the first place. |
| 85 | |
| 86 | * ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' |
| 87 | ** In many games throughout the series, [[MagicIsRareHealthIsCheap HP-restoring items are easy to come by, but MP-restoring items are rare]]. While Tents and Inns restore MP at save points, the ability to recover magic while dungeon crawling or during battle is sparse at best. This makes magic-restoring Ethers liable to sit in a player's inventory for a good long while. In some of the games, Ethers also cannot be purchased, and so are even more valuable unless they can be stolen and you know what to steal them from. |
| 88 | ** In ''every'' game, Elixirs restore all of a character's HP and MP, and Megalixirs work as Elixirs on the entire party. Unless you plan to spend hours trying to steal more of them from specific enemies, you'll only find a small handful of Elixirs in any given game, and probably one or two Megalixirs. One downside of the Megalixirs is that while they will fully heal and restore the MP of all party members, they will not revive from KO, so the chances of a perfect opportunity to use one where your party members are all standing but low on their HP and MP is a very specific circumstance to use a one-shot rare item. |
| 89 | ** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII'': |
| 90 | *** Phoenix Downs can't be purchased in shops. Either keep a party member who knows Raise around, or be prepared to spend time farming weaker enemies for the items. |
| 91 | *** Shurikens, weapons existing specifically to be thrown by the ninja class, are in extremely limited supply, difficult to find, and can be thrown, ''once'', for about 9,999 damage. |
| 92 | ** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'': |
| 93 | *** Shurikens are powerful weapons capable of great damage when Edge uses them with the Throw command, but are only available from an obscure shop just before the final dungeon. Even then, you've got to go through a very long optional ChainOfDeals sidequest before the shopkeeper will sell them. The ones you find before the shop opens will most likely still be in your inventory when you can finally buy them. |
| 94 | *** The same goes for unique swords that Edge can throw. Throwing these swords causes enormous damage, but once thrown they are gone from the game for good, as they cannot be purchased at vendors. |
| 95 | *** A greater example is the Kitchen Knife, also known as the Knife or Spoon. Only one exists in the game and it requires going through an out-of-the-way optional dungeon twice to get it. It does an instant 9,999 damage to whatever you throw it at, so you're probably going to save it for the last boss. |
| 96 | ** ''Franchise/CompilationOfFinalFantasyVII'': |
| 97 | *** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake'' has a NewGamePlus where you keep your inventory and upgrades...but playing on Hard Mode, which you need to do to actually get any benefit out of NG+ or to fight the superbosses, disables items. Any items that were in your inventory when you beat the first playthrough thus become purely decorative. Big Bombers are particularly vulnerable to this, being grenades that do a pretty decent 500 damage to all enemies, but you can only get them from the events right before the DiscOneFinalBoss, and depending on what you do in that chapter you may get somewhere between three and zero. |
| 98 | ** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'': |
| 99 | *** If any party member has a stat that has a spell junctioned to it, the stat in question will see a drop if that particular spell is used. As a result many players refuse to cast any spell they have juctioned in order to keep their stats as high as possible. |
| 100 | *** The Hero and Holy War items, which make respectively a single character or the whole party completely invincible for a short period of time. They have to be mugged off of certain bosses and are thus very limited in quantity... unless you go to the trouble of playing the [[GameBreaker card game]]. Winning the Laguna and Gilgamesh cards -- a difficult task but not NintendoHard -- and refining them with the Card Mod ability gets you 100 Heroes and 10 Holy Wars, more than enough to get you through all of the game's toughest boss fights. |
| 101 | *** The boss, GF, and character cards in Triple Triad are immensely powerful, but using them in a game risks the chance of losing them, and having to go through the hell of trying to get it back. Notably enough, if you grind the card game enough to unlock its secret quest, you can refine the cards and recover them an unlimited amount of times, essentially making the card game entirely a whole different level of GameBreaker. |
| 102 | ** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'' has the Dark Matter item. Unstoppable 9,999 damage for zero MP cost, and there are only three in the game. Smart players, on the other hand, will keep it around just long enough so their summoners can learn Odin off it, and then use it on a boss. |
| 103 | ** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' has a special item called the Master Sphere. You obtain ten of them after capturing ten of each monster, and defeating all the Monster Arena bosses. They are capable of activating any node on the sphere grid, but you only ever get ten of them, and no more. Every node can be activated without them using more common spheres, so they're nothing but a shortcut anyway. The ''PAL/International/HD Remaster'' versions added an option to farm them from Dark Yojimbo as a rare drop (who can be refought at will as long as you don't kill him five times in a row) as well as from arms of Penance but again, once they're gone you cannot get more. And frankly, if you have what it takes to defeat Dark Yojimbo/Penance, [[BraggingRightsReward you probably already remodelled and filled up your sphere grid]]. |
| 104 | ** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI'': |
| 105 | *** Any item that has an "Enchantment" effect with a limited number of uses is almost always Too Awesome to Use... Even when it's not. Items such as Trick Staves, Anniversary Rings and Raphael's Rod are rare in that you can only hold one and they're actually hard to obtain, so players will let them collect dust in storage unless they ''know'' they can get another. Items with unlimited uses but high timers (Tidal Talisman, Nexus Cape) are sometimes Too Awesome to Use because you almost always find yourself needing their enchantment when you've already used them and still have ''days'' remaining on your timer. Items with limited uses that are easy to re-obtain (such as Warp Cudgels, Reraise Earrings or Emperor Bands) subvert this trope, unless those items are being held for resale. Then they're Too Awesome to Use because a "used" Enchantment item cannot be sold on the Auction House. |
| 106 | *** Every job has an ability that, once used, cannot be used for another two hours. But many of these abilities never get used because players either want to hang on to them in case the party gets into a bad situation or the like, at which point it's probably too late anyway, or a waste -- Benediction results in the user getting much too much aggro to avoid being the enemy's target, and Hundred Fists, which allow the Monk to hit repeatedly with almost no delay, usually can't do enough damage to kill the enemy before it starts offing players late in a battle, for example. One exception is Corsair's 2hour, Wild Card, which can recharge 2hours for others in the party... except other Wild Cards. If you're lucky, you can make quite a bit of money on the side by having your level 1 Corsair use Wild Card for random people who'll pay you for success. |
| 107 | ** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'': |
| 108 | *** There are only four elixirs in the entire game. If you do dare to use them and do so intelligently though, [[GameBreaker one is usually enough]] to ''drop'' the scales in your favor. |
| 109 | *** Shrouds, which are field items that pre-buff your characters with every conceivable positive status or let you dodge enemies entirely. While they can be bought in shops, they're not available until almost the end of the game, and even then they're ridiculously expensive. On top of that, they almost never drop from enemies unless you either rank extremely low on a RandomEncounter or have a certain accessory equipped. Needless to say, you'll want to save the twenty or so you get through the course of normal play for the endgame {{Superboss}}es or the later Eidolon fights. |
| 110 | ** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII2'': |
| 111 | *** Elixirs, which there's only a handful of in the game. Using one fully heals and revives everyone on the field, fills the Feral Link gauge, and allows Meteor Javelin and Ultima Arrow to be used again. |
| 112 | *** Phoenix Blood, a rare revival item that confers full HP and Haste. |
| 113 | ** ''VideoGame/LightningReturnsFinalFantasyXIII'': |
| 114 | *** Elixirs take yet another step in usefulness and rarity: using one restores all of Lightning's HP and EP, fills all her ATB gauges and casts all otherwise rare buffs on her, all of above being even more significant than usual considering you start off being only able to carry 6 healing items in total and can increase it up a grand total of 10 on your first playthrough. The only ways to get one are to find and sell a total of 100 [[CollectionSidequest Soul Seeds]] (80 in NewGamePlus) to the merchants that buy them or to find an [[SocializationBonus Outerworld]] NPC that's selling one for the [[AdamSmithHatesYourGuts low, low price of 360,000 Gil]], and doing either of above nets you an achievement or trophy. |
| 115 | ---->''Proof of obtaining an elixir. [[LampshadeHanging It's so rare that it seems almost a waste to use it, doesn't it?]]'' |
| 116 | *** Considering the relative difficulty in getting large amounts of EP on higher difficulty levels, even Ethers and Turbo Ethers count as this considering they're also only available as rewards from a select few sidequests or found from the BonusDungeon. |
| 117 | ** ''VideoGame/BravelyDefault'' actually subverts this with the Megalixir. It works exactly the same, and is just as rare to find, as you'd expect...BUT you can also [[VideoGameStealing steal]] them from [[MetalSlime Guzzlers]]. [[GameBreaker And there's nothing stopping you from doing so until you have a full 99 of them, either.]] |
| 118 | |
| 119 | * ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyLegendII'' naturally has these; almost every item has [[BreakableWeapons a durability counter]]. The ones you can't buy of course will fall into this. A lot of these can be found in the Nasty Dungeon. The Glass sword, which deals 1000+ damage ignoring all defense, breaks after one use. There is also the Hyper cannon, which will instantly win any non-boss battle, but it can only be used three times. You can equip the latter on a robot for one regenerating use, but the [[InventoryManagementPuzzle limited space on a robot]] itself is Too Awesome To Use. The [[EnhancedRemake DS version]] features even more of these. |
| 120 | * ''VideoGame/FullmetalAlchemistAndTheBrokenAngel'' has a system where you can turn things into weapons using alchemy; you can make the basic weapon and a more advanced one, and can add on elemental bonuses to them. You can, for example, create a broadsword and attach fire to that, which is pretty powerful, or you can make the more advanced weapon, a katana, but it comes at a cost; you can't attach an element to it, and, while it is powerful enough to take out an enemy in a single hit, it is used up after about six hits, leaving you running around wildly looking for something else you can turn into a weapon. |
| 121 | * ''VideoGame/{{Geneforge}}'': The Jeweled Wand, which lets you use the extremely powerful "Diamond Spray" attack that you can't cast on your own; it hits up to FIVE enemies for quite a bit of damage. The item is extremely rare, as well, with most players probably only getting one. Players usually save the item for the battle with Trajkov, Goettsch, or the BonusDungeon. |
| 122 | * ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'': |
| 123 | ** Fragile Resins. They can only be acquired from Adventure Rank rewards, or from certain limited events. They can be used to refill 60 Original Resin immediately, but they are often saved up for the endgame because higher World Levels and harder Domains drop more loot even if the Resin costs are static. |
| 124 | ** High-rarity consumables such as the stat-boosting food are often saved up for boss battles, especially if their boosts are great, and if the food requires a lot of ingredients to create in the first place. The Adeptus' Temptation is an example of this since it is a 5★ food that temporarily increases all party members' attack and CRIT Rate for 5 minutes. |
| 125 | ** The Crown of Sagehood is required--in addition to weekly-boss drops--to max out a talent level. Problem is, there's literally no way to get it in normal gameplay; it's only available from occasional limited-time game events. Every character has 3 talents, so choosing which one(s) to use this on could be rather difficult, especially since you could get a new character later who needs it more. |
| 126 | * ''VideoGame/GoldenSun'': |
| 127 | ** The items that fall under this are Water of Life (revives a party member, you'd normally have to reach a town and pay a fee), Psy Crystals (restore full PP instantly), Vials (+500 HP, most characters won't have this much until near the end of the game with a full complement of Djinn), Potions (Full HP) and Mist Potions (heal everyone for ~300 HP, only outclassed by [[LastDiscMagic Pure Wish]], which you need a lot of level grinding to get).\ |
| 128 | You only find so many of them, and once you use them, they're gone. (If you ''sell'' them instead, shops can sell them back to you as rarities at 1.33x the price.) They eventually become useless when you learn Revive (the main character of all games is a [[DishingOutDirt Venus Adept]], who can learn it by setting 4 Djinn of the same element; other Adepts can learn it in nearly any class that requires 4 Venus Djinn), gain access to equipment that regenerates PP in battle, and gain backup party members that can safely spam healing spells between fights while recovering their PP by walking around. |
| 129 | ** Summons. They deal massive damage (especially to bosses), boost the summoner's elemental affinity temporarily, and some have added effects. To use them, though, they require that you unleash your Djinn, which prevents them from giving you a better class and (probably) important spells like Revive. Although they will recover (at a rate of one per person per turn, when you need four per person to do any real damage), the immediate effect makes such a tactic a DeathOrGloryAttack. [[AwesomeButImpractical But, man,]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65IDTQp0JJc do they look cool]]! |
| 130 | * ''VideoGame/GranblueFantasy'' has Sunlight Stones, Damascus Bars and Gold Bars. The former can uncap summons regardless of rarity, while the latter two can uncap any weapon type and are also used for certain rare weapons. All of them are extremely scarce and hard to obtain, so many players only use them for select priority items. |
| 131 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Hydlide}}'', the Medicine will revive you to full health when you die, but only once. Saving it for the FinalBoss is pretty much obligatory. |
| 132 | |
| 133 | * ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'': |
| 134 | ** Megalixirs are more or less the same as in ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'', generally only available through costly synthesis, a few chests, or some other very time consuming method and serving the same purpose of completely restoring you and your party. ''Videogame/KingdomHeartsCoded'' however averts it, by being able to ''buy'' them. Yeah, they cost 2000 Munny apiece, but then again there is a stat matrix cheat that allows you to multiply money (and health) drops by as much as 5 at cost of enemies being proportionally stronger, so if you're good at dodging, just make few trips to Olympus Coliseum Entrance and you should have enough money for them. They also completely heal Sora, remove any of his statuses and max his overclock gauge, meaning you can just use Finisher to obliterate everything. |
| 135 | ** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories'': The Random Joker cards. Exceedingly rare, and one Random Joker fits ''any'' critera for opening a door. If you manage to get one, you'll probably end up saving it until you reach the FinalBoss, just in case you find a door with an even ''more'' insane requirement. |
| 136 | ** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsX'' has, in the Unchained [[UpdatedRerelease rerelease]], the No Cost skill medals. While they may seem easy to use (stick it on a medal with a powerful or costly special attack), ''what'' to use it on is the problem. Adding to it, you get them by ''buying'' event avatar boards with Jewels, and you only get one of them. They'll likely be sitting there gathering dust for a long time. In the title update to Union X, they've added SP gauge 0 and 1 medals, as well as ATK boost 3-4 and gauge 1-2. They're even more ludicrously hard to figure out what to use, since your strongest may have a low cost to begin with, and like No Cost, they're only available through Premium Boards. Unlike No Cost, they have a ''100% activation rate'' (No Cost had 49% at max level), meaning you're going to be hoarding at least one for the right medal. Add in the traits and '''good luck'''. |
| 137 | |
| 138 | * ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfDragoon'' features magical items in three tiers. The first two are fairly easy to buy but the final tier is only available as rare drops or in certain (non-respawning) chests. Given how powerful they are, many players will save them for hours or more until facing a boss that's weak against that specific item. Similarly, the Satchel, an item that (except for a single boss fight) only does ten damage, will be saved for most of the game because it's the only way to defeat the late game MetalSlime that gives out truckloads of experience[[note]]The enemy only has four hitpoints, but is immune to everything except the Satchel, which always does exactly ten points of damage[[/note]]. |
| 139 | |
| 140 | * Both ''VideoGame/LegendOfGrimrock'' games have few items that will most likely stay in your inventory until BonusDungeon or FinalBoss: |
| 141 | ** Bombs in ''I''. You won't find a whole lot of them even if you sniff out every secret, so those you do find will be mostly reserved for things like [[BrutalBonusLevel Fighter's Challenge]]. This also applies to second game, though if you have Alchemist in your party they'll be able to grow more ingredients to make bombs of, mitigating this. |
| 142 | ** Charged weapons in both games such as The Fire Blade. They have powerful attack with each swing (for example The Fire Blade shoots fire ball with just simple attack)... and also very limited number of charges that ''cannot'' be replenished (except with red crystal shards in ''II''), so they'll be used only in emergencies. |
| 143 | ** Crystal shards themselves from second game are also an example. They come in red, green and blue variety, which recharges charged weapons, provides massive defense increase and heals plus ressurects entire party respectively. As you can guess, their amount in entire game can be counted on two hands and they're virtually unavailable outside secrets, so you'll mostly use them only during the fight with FinalBoss. |
| 144 | ** Blueberry pie. There is exactly one in each game. However this is rather benign example, since the food is plentiful and the only difference here is the strength of effect, which in this case doesn't matter that much. |
| 145 | |
| 146 | * ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsInTheSky The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky]]'' has the EP Charge EX, which is this for at least most of the game. It restores 300 [[{{Mana}} EP]] to one character (for comparison, a character's maximum EP will likely vary from about 200 to 600 depending on who it is and what [[PowersAsPrograms quartz]] they have equipped). You will find only 7 of them in the game (and 5 of those are in TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon), and they cannot be bought until almost the end of the game. |
| 147 | ** In the sequel, it's called EP Charge II. It's noticeably easier to come by there (partly because you can buy them earlier), but it also introduces a ''third'' tier. EP Charge III items restore 500 EP and cannot be bought at all. There are also the Zeram Powder and Zeram Capsule, which revive, restore HP to full, and restore either 100 or 200 CP (i.e. LimitBreak points) respectively. They can be bought only in the casino and only on NewGamePlus, and you need to win medals to buy casino prizes. You'll probably find about a dozen EP Charge [=IIIs=], 8 Zeram Powders, and 4 Zeram Capsules through the course of the game. |
| 148 | ** Both games also have the Deathblow 2 Quartz. Equipping one causes your next attack to inflict guaranteed instant death on the target, but the quartz permanently breaks afterwards, and you only get a few in the game. Deciding what to save it for it hard enough, but you'd better how what you ''do'' decide to use it on isn't immune to instant death... |
| 149 | ** Powerful food items also fall under this; while you can make them yourself once you learn their recipes, they tend to require a lot of rare ingredients, and you usually only get one freebie (a notable exception being the Nirvana Tea). The 100 Victories Steak is noteworthy for being an item found in Chapter 2 that restores 10000 HP ''and'' buffs your STR, when most characters are unlikely to have that much HP until the ''final'' chapter. (Tip: Don't treat the [[AbnormalAmmo attack items]] this way, because their damage does ''not'' scale with your characters' stats, so they're all basically underpowered to the point of uselessness once you reach the FinalBoss, but [[DiscOneNuke DISGUSTINGLY overpowered at the point they're first obtained]]) |
| 150 | * ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel III'' has the Dragon Incense item, which restores everyone's HP, revives anyone that might be [=KOed=] and restores your party's Brave Points which are used to issue orders that can grant powerful status boosts and other benefits. Sets of them can be purchased as [=DLC=], but if you don't do this, there's only one or two available through treasures. |
| 151 | |
| 152 | * Miracles in the ''VideoGame/{{Lufia}}'' series are like [[Franchise/FinalFantasy Elixirs]], except they also revive and cure any status effects. Even though you get more of them than you tend to get of Elixirs, they'll often end up hoarded. |
| 153 | ** Because IP [[LimitBreak only raises when attacked]] in ''VideoGame/LufiaIIRiseOfTheSinistrals'', it's very tempting to never use any IP ability with a high cost. ''VideoGame/LufiaTheLegendReturns'' averts this, as IP slowly raises each turn. |
| 154 | ** In ''VideoGame/LufiaTheLegendReturns'', there's Croquettes. Croquettes act like Miracles, except for ''your entire party'' (up to ''nine'' characters). As one might expect, they're incredibly rare and almost all of them are {{permanently missable|Content}} to boot, but can easily bring you back from certain doom...if you can bring yourself to part with one. |
| 155 | ** Nectar in ''VideoGame/LufiaTheRuinsOfLore'' functions like a Miracle, but without revival/status-cure properties. [[ItemCrafting Creating it]] requires high-tier potions and {{Random Drop}}s from the Ancient Cave. It would be Too Awesome To Use...[[GoodBadBugs if making the Nectar actually consumed the two required items]]. |
| 156 | * In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', the M-920 Cain is essentially a railgun with the power of a nuclear warhead (to the point of causing mushroom clouds and bearing the radiation hazard symbol) that does enough damage to instantly clear an entire squadron of enemy troops. Unfortunately, it requires all of your heavy weapon ammo to fire once (unless you have the heavy ammo upgrades; getting them all will let you fire it twice). It has a four second charge time, and you have to charge it out of cover. It's just not practical in the many close-quarters firefights which populate the game because of its blast radius, especially since its projectile is relatively slow. The last boss is one of the fights you'd want to use it on, but he flails around like he's having a seizure, making hitting him an exercise in frustration, so you might save it until the end... and then completely blow it. Fortunately in the same boss battle, some of the mooks that spawn alongside the boss drop a special ammo pickup that also refills your heavy weapon ammo. |
| 157 | * In the ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'' games, there are Max Potions and Ancient Potions: you can only hold 2 and 1 at a time, respectively. Max potions will heal you to full and increase your max total health to its maximum; Ancient Potions will do that '''and''' do the same to your stamina (though stamina recovers megafast anyway, but the max deteriorates over time). Max potions can be crafted, and with farmable materials, but they're a hassle... and Ancient Potions also require Kelbi Horns to make, which can be tough to get. And inventory slots are valuable. So, pretty much never gets used. They do have a good use for when you get killed, as that resets your max stamina/health and they're the only ones who can increase max health during a quest... but then you're wasting the healing component, and most don't assume they'll get killed during a quest/plan around it. |
| 158 | * ''VideoGame/{{MOTHER}}'': |
| 159 | ** ''VideoGame/EarthBoundBeginnings'': People went through the game saving up on attack items like bottle rockets to use on the final boss, only to find out in the end that to beat him, [[spoiler:you have to sing to him]]. Fortunately, ''VideoGame/{{EarthBound|1994}}'' allowed you to buy the various types of bottle rockets (and for fairly reasonable prices considering how much damage they can do). So bottle rockets are no longer Too Awesome to Use. |
| 160 | ** ''VideoGame/{{EarthBound|1994}}'': |
| 161 | *** There's a healing item called a Hand-Aid which recovers all your HP and PP, but there is only one of it in the game. |
| 162 | *** Then there's the Bag of Dragonite, which turns one character into a dragon (although this just means a one-time powerful fire attack). If it weren't for the restrictive nature of the inventory in that game, they'd never be used at all.[[note]]It is ''not'' worth it to keep this item until you fight the final boss, because [[spoiler: just like the final boss in ''[=EarthBound=] Beginnings'', it is immune to all attacks, and it has a reflective barrier that will never go away]]. There are boss fights prior to the final boss that it ''is'' worth saving it for, such as [[spoiler:Ness's Nightmare; just make sure to give Ness the Bags of Dragonite before absorbing the last My Sanctuary location]].[[/note]] |
| 163 | ** ''VideoGame/{{Mother 3}}'' repeatedly asks you not to do this, telling the player it's no use carrying around items you never use. At one point a woman asks if you're the kind of person who "stocks up on food and never eats it." |
| 164 | * The ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights'' franchise has this. This is mostly the case with powerful or even ordinary potions and scrolls, especially if your character is not a magic build. A lot of mundane but tough fights could have been made easier if you'd just used that barkskin potion or whatnot, but you keep saving it for the boss fights. |
| 165 | * ''VideoGame/{{Nexomon}}'': Golden Nexotraps will catch any Nexomon without fail, but unlike regular Nexotraps, you can't buy them from shops. They can only be obtained in two ways: either you find them lying on the ground, or you get them as rewards for reaching certain milestones in the story. Either way, there's a finite number of Golden Nexotraps available in the game. |
| 166 | * ''VideoGame/OctopathTraveler'': |
| 167 | ** The third tier of elemental soulstones can dish out absolutely obscene amounts of damage, so you'll definently want to save them for either the toughest boss fights, or [[MetalSlime Chubby Caits]]. Thankfully, these can be farmed by Thieves from high-level elemental spirits for that element's respective soulstone. |
| 168 | ** Revitalizing Jam fully restores a character's HP, SP, and BP. These items are extremely rare, so it's important to save them for the final dungeon. They can be farmed by Thieves from regular Revenants, but they are likewise extremely rare and the best place to farm from them[[note]]Grimsand Road[[/note]] is locked behind H'aanit's Chapter 4. |
| 169 | * ''VideoGame/{{Opoona}}'' has the Popcorn Shower item. It can only be bought from the [[YourMoneyIsNoGoodHere OMP Point Shop]] for 1000 points, the equivalent of 100,000 [[GlobalCurrency Matia]]. It does almost 1000 damage to every enemy in a battle... but even the game's burliest random encounters only have around 400 HP, so few fights require that kind of firepower. There are a few where it would be worthwhile (such as against the BossInMookClothing enemies), but in areas where they appear, they aren't as uncommon, leaving players to wonder if they're really in a bad enough place to use it. |
| 170 | * ''VideoGame/ParasiteEve'': The [[AutoRevive Revive]] items are these since, for each Revive item you have in your inventory, you are revived once all your hp is depleted. Unfortunately, the item is '''very scarce''' and as such it should be carefully utilized. |
| 171 | * ''VideoGame/ParasiteEve2'': |
| 172 | ** The game presents a conundrum. The only way to buy items is with the in-game currency known as BP, which you get for killing monsters. Monsters don't respawn. This leaves you with the decision of what guns and ammo to use. Sure you can buy awesome weapons like an M4 assault rifle, the shotgun, or a single shot grenade launcher, but ammo costs add up real quick. So if you burn through ammo, you won't have enough for armor and other upgrades. Thankfully the most basic ammo is free in ammo boxes in certain places that have an unlimited amount in them. |
| 173 | ** Items left over after beating the game are added up as BP to use in your next NewGamePlus. The more items you have, the more BP you get. If you want to earn as much BP as possible to obtain the better ranks, you'll have to perform a near MinimalistRun and try to use as few items as possible. |
| 174 | * ''VideoGame/PathfinderWrathOfTheRighteous'' has special quivers of ammunition, which add special effects to your bow/crossbow attacks but are in limited supply and disappear once consumed. What takes the cake, though, is Midnight Bolts, a special missile that '''always hits''' (in a game where pretty much everything barring Magic Missile has at least a 1 in 20 chance to miss or be dodged/negated, even moreso with enemies of equal or higher level you'd want to use it on) and deals a whopping '''50 damage''' that can't be blocked or resisted in any way (again, in a game where from the get go you fight enemies that can reduce damage from most sources). Early bosses will lose one fourth to half of their hit points to a single Midnight Bolt, but for most of the game you will only have the one... |
| 175 | * ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'': |
| 176 | ** The Master Ball can catch any wild Pokémon without fail. However, you usually only get one each game, and the only way to get another one in most games is winning the grand prize of the lottery. The existence of legendary Pokémon makes it a bit easier to decide to actually use it -- it just makes sense to use the item you only get one of to catch the Pokémon that you can only encounter once.[[note]]although from ''Platinum'' onwards they would respawn after beating the Champion.[[/note]] Alternatively, one could use it on [[GetBackHereBoss roaming Pokémon]] to save themselves stress or with a shiny Pokémon (especially if it's an [[MetalSlime Abra]] or a Graveler that knows [[SuicideAttack Self Destruct]]). |
| 177 | ** Certain healing items, such as Max Revives, can heal every Pokémon in your party to full health but can only be found once or twice in the game. In most games, there's only one legal way to get Sacred Ash, but the item's power is ridiculously awesome - it is essentially a [[Franchise/FinalFantasy Megalixir]] that revives all of the Pokémon in your party to full health (albeit only on the field), something you can normally only do by visiting a Pokémon Center. |
| 178 | ** Ethers and Elixirs can't be bought in stores, and in Generation I, they are the ''only'' way to [[ManaPotion restore PP]] without visiting a Pokémon Center. If you use them at all, it'll probably be during the [[BossRush Elite Four battles]]. Mysteryberries in Generation II had the same effect and respawned every day, while Leppa Berries from every Generation afterward had the same effect but you could replant them for more. |
| 179 | ** RareCandy, a free level-up, is another example. However, since the higher a Pokémon's level is, the more experience it needs to level, saving them for later leveling lets you get the most bang for your buck. |
| 180 | ** Items necessary to evolve certain Pokémon (Elemental Stones, King Rocks, and the like) have always been notorious for being rare and hard to find (except for ''Red, Blue, and Yellow'' and their remakes, where the stones could be bought for cheap and en masse). Most of the time, you can only find a few on the ground, get them as gifts from characters, and very rarely, find them carried by wild Pokémon. ''VideoGame/PokemonBlack2AndWhite2'', and ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'' after them, made some of them more readily available so long as you fulfilled certain conditions. |
| 181 | ** Prior to Generation V, [=TMs=] (items that teach attacks to Pokémon). Some can be bought, but others could only be obtained once. Given that they could only be used once, it's always possible that you may have just wasted a strong attack on a Pokémon you'll never use again. Even worse, you will most likely need multiple copies of certain [=TMs=] for high-level competitive play, but the only way to get those moves is by breeding, trading, or worse, restarting your game multiple times. Earthquake was a particularly big offender, given its high power, accuracy, lack of negative side-effects, [[ElementalRockPaperScissors useful typing]], and learnability. Worse, since only fathers pass down [=TM=] moves, the player was discouraged from ''ever'' using one-of-a-kind [=TMs=] on female or genderless Pokémon. WordOfGod has stated that the change to make [=TMs=] infinite use from Gen V onward was because of this. [=TMs=] are single-use again starting from ''Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl'', but the trope is still averted simply because you can ''get more'' -- In BDSP, you can either try amassing BP from [[BrutalBonusLevel Battle Tower]] to buy these rare [=TMs=] or search for specific merchants in the Grand Underground (although whether they sell these rare [=TMs=] depend on the day of the week), while in ''VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet'' there's a TM machine in every Pokécenter where you can craft more [=TMs=] at the cost of some farmable materials and LP. |
| 182 | ** Move Tutors In Generation III. Move tutors were introduced to teach pokemon Generation I-II [=TMs=] moves that didn't appear as [=TMs=] in the generation. Like [=TMs=], they can only be taught once. Unlike [=TMs=], there is no way in getting another chance to teach the move to another pokemon barring starting a new game. Even worse, some of these moves are highly coveted for competitive play. Emerald tried to resolve the issue by making some of the moves become unlimited for the cost of BP in the Battle Frontier, but it also introduce several Move Tutors that are single use only. It wasn't until from Generation IV onwards that all Move Tutors can teach pokemon moves unlimited times in exchange from points or items. |
| 183 | ** ''VideoGame/PokemonColosseum'': Time Flutes instantly purify ''any'' Pokémon, thereby giving them an extra move and whatever experience they should have gained through battle. However, you can only find three in the game: one for defeating Dakim at Mt. Battle, one using the U-Disk that you find at the Shadow Pokémon Lab, and one at the summit of [[MarathonLevel Mt. Battle]], right in front of the 100th arena. As a result, those unable to conquer Mt. Battle have only two Time Flutes they can use for whatever Pokémon they want, adding to the stress of determining who it will be used on. Luckily, there are only 48 Shadow Pokémon in the game, so even the most indecisive players will use the flutes in the end. |
| 184 | ** ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'' adds Gems, which grant a whopping 50% power boost to a move of the same element, but they're one-use, which means that after that initial blaze of power, your Pokémon is stuck with no item. You have to decide if the one-time boost is preferable to the constant 20% boost you'd get from a Type-enhancing item of the same element. These Gems are rather rare (only being found in certain spots or randomly appearing dust clouds in certain areas), so it's more useful to use them in situations like Link Battles, the Battle Subway, and the PWT, where held items are restored between matches. [[VideoGame/PokemonXAndY The following generation]] takes it up to eleven, in which you are given one Normal Gem (as a hidden item which occasionally respawns) but none of the other types at all. |
| 185 | ** Certain Berries reduce super-effective damage from a certain type, restore health, or raise a stat when at low health. They're consumed upon use. Especially problematic in Generation V, where the only way to obtain those berries easily (or ''at all'') are on the [[TemporaryOnlineContent Dream World website]], or only obtainable from certain Join Avenue shops. Again, it's better to use them in battles with restored items between rounds. A few berries are extremely difficult to get a hold of (often requiring beating battle tower, subway or mansion facilities, all of which have downright absurd [=RNG=] abuse) and although there's often a system to farm berries (except in Generation V as mentioned earlier), these berries take an extremely long time to produce a good number of them. |
| 186 | ** There's a lot of other good hold items that are one-use items which are best used only in the Battle facilities where you can get them back (or in player vs. player matches, which do the same, or in VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet, where ''every'' battle returns them), like Air Balloons, Focus Sashes, Eject Buttons, Absorb Bulbs, and White Bulbs and other stuff that greatly benefit Pokémon in battles. The shops at the Battle centers actually sell them, but you have to win ''a lot'' before you can gain enough credits to buy them, so it's best to only use them in the tournaments themselves. |
| 187 | ** The move Recycle introduced in Generation III is helpful in preventing this trope in that it causes consumed held items to respawn. |
| 188 | ** PP Ups (and PP Maxes, but these are just the equivalent of 3 PP Ups) permanently increase the total PP of a single move. In the several generations preceding ''VideoGame/PokemonBlack2AndWhite2'', they cannot be bought anywhere, and only a handful exist in the field; if you're incredibly lucky or patient, you can collect more with the Pickup ability or through the Lotto, which requires lots of Pokémon with different trainer [=IDs=]. In the end, it's not really worth the effort to most people. Many players never use them, because even if you think you know exactly which move to boost, you might have to overwrite it later, making it a waste. Unfortunately, like the aforementioned TM's, certain high-power moves only have 5 uses normally, meaning they needed to be boosted to 8 PP for competitive play because that PP will run out fast. Ideally, one should have all their moves maxed out in case they have to outlast a stall team, but this was tedious to do since PP Ups were not made widely available and easily accessible until the Isle of Armor DLC in ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield'' (which introduced the [[ItemCrafting Cram-o-Matic]] that can mix items into PP Ups, which also makes good use of your ShopFodder if you know the right combination). |
| 189 | ** Starting from ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'', players can acquire "unique" Poké Balls from previous games, but only in extremely limited quantity. |
| 190 | *** Generation VII allows you to obtain the Apricorn Balls from Generation II, but you can only get one of each per file (two if you transfer a Pokémon from the Virtual Console versions of ''Gold/Silver/Crystal''). |
| 191 | *** ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield'' allows you to get one of each Apricorn Ball and a Dream Ball from Generation V by talking to Ball Guy at each Gym in the region. You can also get a Beast Ball from Generation VII at Stow-on-Side after beating the game. It is possible to obtain additional copies of them by repeating the Champion Cup after beating the game, but they are insanely rare. The ''Isle of Armor'' DLC also lets you fuse items at the Cram-o-Matic for a chance at an Apricorn Ball, now including the Safari Ball from Kanto and the Sport Ball from Johto, but at atrociously low odds without the possibility of SaveScumming. |
| 192 | *** ''VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet'' awards one copy of every Apricorn Ball, the Dream Ball, and the Beast Ball for fulfilling Pokédex milestones, with the latter being awarded for catching every Pokémon. Like in ''Sword and Shield'', you can get duplicates from the Academy Ace Tournament, again at obscenely low drop rates. They can also be rarely found at the Porto Marinada market, but have prohibitively expensive bids that it's not worth the effort. |
| 193 | ** ''VideoGame/PokemonGO'': |
| 194 | *** Premium Battle Passes allow players to either participate in as many raids as they want if they have enough passes or use them to participate in global PVP against a randomly chosen player. PVP has both a freebie version and a premium version that requires a pass to enter. The premium version of PVP has greater rewards (more stardust, more Rare Candy, better Pokémon rewards, etc) compared to the free version which doesn't give out as much. However, in order to get the better rewards, you have to win several rounds in a row with a five win streak being the maximum. If you get a string of bad luck due to shoddy connections, an opponent that easily counters your team, or just plain bad luck in general, your overall rewards will be a lot weaker. Hardcore raiders will likely never use their battle passes on PVP since the risk is too great and not worth sacrificing raids for. The only way to get a pass is either completing a quest that gives them out (which is not common) or paying real money to get them. |
| 195 | *** Elite [=TMs=] are only offered as an end prize for each GO Battle League season, from expensive Community Day boxes that are only available monthly, or in certain mission chains, mostly timed ones. They allow you to pick any learnable move to teach a Pokemon, including moves exclusive to Community Day or raid events (Hydro Cannon on Swampert, Psystrike on Mewtwo, Shadow Bone on Alolan Marowak, etc) or certain moves that could no longer be learned normally otherwise (Ice Shard and Icy Wind on Dewgong, for example). |
| 196 | *** Remote Raid Passes allow you to take part in raids from anywhere without having to be at their location, whether they are visible on the map or you get invited to a raid from a friend. Originally, you were able to buy Remote Raid Passes for about $1 (for one) or $3 (for a bundle of three) and could do remote raiding as much as you wanted, but in April 2023, prices for the passes doubled and players are limited to five raids a day when it comes to using the Remote Raid Passes (some events temporarily remove this limit). Between the increased cost, the limited uses, and the fact that it's not guaranteed that you will catch a Pokémon after the raid, a lot of people will not use their Remote Raid Passes unless it's for a Pokémon they really want. Remote Raid Passes are sometimes given out for free with weekly research breakthroughs, but those are also not guaranteed. |
| 197 | *** Just like its main series counterpart, the Master Ball can catch anything without fail - [[CutscenePowerToTheMax and you can't even miss your throw]]! Also like the main series, you only get one as a [[PermanentlyMissableContent seasonal mission reward]]. Those who missed the event have the option to [[BribingYourWayToVictory buy the mission ticket in the store]]. |
| 198 | * ''VideoGame/RadiantHistoria'' has a few, ranging from valuable but reasonably obtainable to absurdly rare: |
| 199 | ** Celestial Dew restores 200 MP to the party, and there are only 2 of them in the game. The Celestial Tea and Celestial Oil (full-party 50 and 100 MP restoration respectively) are a subversion, as while they are equally hard to find and cannot be bought in shops, they can be [[VideoGameStealing stolen]] from a few late-game enemies. Radiant Historia's stealing mechanic tends to have a fairly high success rate and the enemies can be respawned, so it is not too hard to maximize your stock of these. The same goes for Healing Fruit, Superior Tea, and Divine Water (full-party 300 HP restoration, single-person 150 MP restoration, and single-person revival and 500 HP restoration), which are valuable but can be purchased late in the game. |
| 200 | ** The Medibranch, which has about the same rarity as the above and restores 1000 HP to the party (most characters, by the way, will not have that much HP even at level 99). |
| 201 | ** To a lesser extent, the Shield Seeds, which can block attacks and are also unavailable in shops. |
| 202 | ** Finally, Mana Crystals can only be used at save points but will fully restore the party's HP and MP, and aside from the three you get for free at the beginning of the game, they are hard to find and relatively expensive to buy. Players might want to save them for late in the game when the restoration will be of a greater magnitude (since, naturally, the player characters will be at higher levels and have greater maximum HP and MP values). Then again, since most save points also allow you to warp to any other save point in the game, most people will just use them to warp to the nearest TraumaInn whenever they're low on HP and MP, warp back and continue where they left off, making the Crystals' use questionable at best. |
| 203 | * In ''VideoGame/RivieraThePromisedLand'', the battle system is based entirely on consumable items (weapons break, potions run dry, magic orbs lose power etc) and there are several items which have very low uses, sometimes even only one. Among them are the InfinityPlusOneSword weapons Fanelia and Longinius, which deal truly excessive amounts of damage; however other than against the FinalBoss, there's no real reason to actually use them, so 99.99% of the time they'll just occupy your item slots (of which you have only 15!). Thankfully, there is a training mode where items are not consumed which is great since leveling up in the game only works with training the use of the consumable items, some of which have less maximum use than mastering them takes to begin with! |
| 204 | * ''VideoGame/SecretOfEvermore'' has two super-rare weapons: The bazooka and the call bead. The former is a projectile weapon that deals tons of damage and can be loaded with three kinds of ammo, except said ammo is so rare and expensive you'd normally never fire it. The latter summons an ally who launches a [[LastDiscMagic very powerful spell]], but since there are only so many call beads in the game you'd never use them. However, thanks to a couple of {{Good Bad Bug}}s, the Cryo-Blast rounds (which happens to be the ''best ammo'') don't deplete as you fire them and you can get infinite call beads thanks to a glitched event flag in Nobilia. |
| 205 | * The Key items in the ''VideoGame/ShadowHearts'' games allow a character to extend a physical attack string according to their number, as long as the player can keep hitting a series of timed button presses.. The Third Key allows for three spins of the judgement ring, the Fifth five, and so on. The Eternal Key allows to extend a physical attack string ''infinitely''. Get enough hits with one, and it'll kill literally any enemy in existence through overwhelmingly huge damage. Of course, there's only one in each game. Also, being skill-based, it comes with the inherent threat of making you succumb to PerformanceAnxiety and missing early, completely wasting it, which can easily discourage you from even ''trying'' to use it. |
| 206 | * ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'': |
| 207 | ** Across the series, there are items that fully heal the HP of your party (usually Bead Chains), items that fully restore the party's MP (usually Great Chakras), and items that do both at once (usually Beads of Life). These will often be very rare, appearing only as sidequest rewards or in chests on the field; if you ''can'' purchase them, they may come at a ludicrous price. |
| 208 | ** ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIIINocturne'': |
| 209 | *** Somas fully heal a character's HP and SP, but they're painfully rare and just begging to be stockpiled. There's only ONE that doesn't require finding Mystical Chests, the contents of which [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard will actually change if you open them in the wrong phase]]. How do you get it? Through a very-easily missed vending machine that ''stops working'' after the Conception. In other words, it's only available to you for the first 15 minutes of the game. Missed it? [[PermanentlyMissableContent Too bad.]] Not to mention it doesn't actually ''say'' it's a Soma when you get it, until after the Conception. |
| 210 | *** This is inverted with HP healing items. Your average healing items are available on shops, but they are ''expensive'' up until mid-game and you're better leaving those to tough battles. To help with this, there are Muscle Drinks and variants and Life Stones: the first one heals a huge deal of HP but can cause one of the StatusEffects on use - being a NintendoHard game, you do '''not''' want to get afflicted with these on boss fights. The other one always heal a fixed low percentage, so it's never enough in mid-battle and you're better using them on the map. While fairly common, those are only available as RandomDrops, and demons like to use them as bargaining chips if you're trying to recruit one mid-battle. |
| 211 | ** ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiStrangeJourney'': |
| 212 | *** Incenses and Sacrifices. The first permanently raise one of your stats and fully heal your HP and MP, the second automatically revive and fully heal your main character when he takes an Expel or Curse instant kill attack, which would otherwise mean a [[WeCannotGoOnWithoutYou Game Over]]. You only get a limited number of them, most of the times from completing determinate sidequests in a specific way, or finding very rare chests in areas swarming with high-level enemies. And you keep the Incenses between [[NewGamePlus runs]], while your stats reset, meaning a savvy player will stock up dozens of them to face the {{Superboss}}es or the BossRush. Incenses, unlike every other game in the franchise, can be produced at the lab... but you need several of the unique materials that only the Fiends drop. For each. |
| 213 | *** Mirrors, who deflect all physical or magical attack on your whole party for a single turn, ''and'' have top turn priority just like other items. |
| 214 | *** Magic Stones aren't limited, but are annoyingly difficult to acquire, as each type of them needs certain materials to be gathered around or stolen from demons (and some can only be [[LuckBasedMission obtained through negotiation]] from certain demons - good luck getting ''anything at all'' from a demon of your opposite alignment!) and then processed back at your ship, while spending hefty sums of Macca in the process. And they're the only way a MA-Type Demonica can take full advantage of its stats, since guns that give access to similar skills are not only even harder to come by or alignment-locked, but those skill's damage is based on ST. |
| 215 | ** ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIV'': |
| 216 | *** To discourage this trope, the game now has hard caps on the amounts of certain healing items you can carry; for instance, you can still keep a stock of 50 Life Stones, Medicines and Healing Water each, but now it's impossible to have more than 2 Beads of Life. Any attempt to grab another will result in the item being returned to the box. The only healing items you can get 99 of are the insanely rare high-quality demon meat cuts, but they restore such an absurdly small amount of HP that they are BetterOffSold. |
| 217 | ** ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIVApocalypse'': |
| 218 | *** ''Everything'' in Saint Germain's shop, incredibly so for the Diamond items. Complete Restoration Gems are ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin - full restoration for the entire party, especially valuable with the tremendous drop in effectiveness for all MP-restoration items. Relics of Revival will not only revive you and your entire party should you fall, but will also grant you eight Press Turns. Dimensional Hourglasses will grant you an extra Press Turn for the entire battle. The big issue is that each of these beauties costs ''five Diamonds'', and even the gem-farming DLC isn't enough to trivialize either their acquisition or their use. |
| 219 | ** ''VideoGame/Persona3'' and ''VideoGame/Persona4'': |
| 220 | *** The "Soma" item returns, this time restoring the whole party's life and magic points. However there are only several in each game and they can't be bought from any store. |
| 221 | *** In the UpdatedRerelease "Persona 3 Portable", combination attacks now come in card form, purchasable from the antique store. Remember that GameBreaker, ''Armageddon''? It now cost '''99''' Malachite and '''10''' Opal. Don't worry, you'll have that many if you saved for 80 levels. |
| 222 | *** In ''VideoGame/Persona4'', MP restoration items can fall under this. The reason being that, unlike in ''VideoGame/Persona3'', you can't buy anything that restores MP, only farm them from chests in dungeons. Considering that the general consensus is that you can only have a single, really long dungeon run each month (for the most part) if you want maximum efficiency in ''Persona 4'', you'll need to hoard those MP recovery items. |
| 223 | *** ''Persona 4'' also has several sidequests that reward you with unique items with in-battle effects (e.g the Olympic Tape, which buffs the whole party's Agility, or the Spirit Radio which fully restores SP). Given that you can only get these once and there are farmable items with identical effects (e.g Super Sonic does the same thing as Olympic Tape and can be found in chests), they tend to fall into this trope. |
| 224 | ** ''VideoGame/Persona5'' gives you a [Lover]'s Chocolate after you complete the RomanceSidequest for any LoveInterest after Joker meets up with his lover. The chocolate completely restores SP to one character, which you can use on NewGamePlus. You only ever get this chocolate once per playthrough, and it's after you've already beaten the FinalBoss and the story is in its {{Denouement}}. So if you want another chocolate, you have to beat the game all over again. Given how rare SP-restoring items are in general, a player will probably save it for the unlocked SuperBoss or just never use it. |
| 225 | * ''VideoGame/SkiesOfArcadia'': |
| 226 | ** The Aura of Valor maxes your Spirit pool, allowing you to unleash your biggest attacks instantly. You only ever get ''three'' of them, tops. While the storyline bosses can be beaten without using an Aura, they're indispensable for some of the [[OptionalBoss Wanted Battles]], especially in the Gamecube remake when you start facing more than one enemy at a time. |
| 227 | * Zigzagged (but played straight for 99% of the game) in ''VideoGame/SouthParkTheStickOfTruth'' with summons. There are 4 obtainable summons in total, and they all deal a massive amount of damage to all enemies, usually ending the battle on the spot, but they can't be used against bosses. They can also only be used once per day. The problem? The in-game days are tied to story progression, and the entire game takes place over the course of just 3 days, meaning that each summon functionally has a 3-use limit. Averted in exactly ONE fight on the night of Day 2, which would be a contender for ThatOneBoss if you couldn't summon [[UsefulNotes/JesusChrist Jesus]] and win instantly. |
| 228 | * The original ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG'' has tons of these. At the end of the game you have enough of these that you have to actually start chucking the "lesser" amazing items when your inventory fills up. Thankfully most of the really awesome items have either multiple uses or easily-acquired substitutes. The game, to its credit, does try to avert this by occasionally allowing "Freebies", which mean the item is not used up. The [[VideoGameRemake remake]] overhauls the inventory to allow for a smaller cap on specific items but unlimited item slots, and adds a storage box to avoid the need to throw anything out. |
| 229 | ** The best example of an "easily-acquired substitute" is [[GameBreaker Kero-Kero Cola]], a [[Franchise/FinalFantasy Megalixir]]-equivalent that can be repeatedly bought around mid-to-late-game for an expensive but not impossible 150/200 coins, depending on where you get them. By comparison, Max Mushrooms (which heal a party member to full HP) can only be bought at the VeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon and Royal Syrup (which restores FP to full) can't be bought at all. Kero-Kero Cola does the same thing as both items combined, and on the whole party, too. Unless money is an issue (and given the genre, [[MoneyForNothing it probably isn't]]) you'll never be in a position where using the rare item is better than using a Cola, letting you treat them as ShopFodder instead of worrying about saving them. |
| 230 | ** One of the biggest items of them all would be the Red Essence, which leaves a character invincible for three turns and is very hard to find. There's some Red Essences that are easy to find, for example, just sleep on the Dream Cushion until you get the Toad dream and you have a chance of getting two for free. |
| 231 | ** Flower Boxes, Jars and Tabs completely recover your FP alongside raising it, so you'll often save them for when you start running low so as to save your normal recovery items. |
| 232 | ** Another one is the Rock Candy, which deals ''200 damage'' to every enemy in the battle, ''300 damage'' if the character that used the item has the "Attack Up" buff. Too bad that the average player will only find about three throughout the entire game, and there's some obscure ways to get more of these, but most players know exactly what they're saving all the Candies for: [[SuperBoss Culex.]] |
| 233 | * ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga'' has Golden Mushrooms; there are only about 4 you can ever get in hidden courses, and they fully restore the bros' HP and BP. There are places where you can farm them though: [[spoiler:Use Advanced Swing Bros on Fawful in the Bowser's Castle battle or on Popple in the "Popple and Birdo" battle to get one, then get killed. When asked to reload a save, reload from the place, and not the last save. This allows you to keep the Golden Mushroom for [[GoodBadBugs some reason]], and now you can repeat the process for more Gold Shrooms.]] |
| 234 | * ''VideoGame/PaperMario'': |
| 235 | ** Jammin' Jelly, and to a lesser extent, the Ultra Shroom. The latter gives Mario 50 HP when used, while the former gives you 50 FP. Since you can only level Mario's HP and FP up to 50 (to have more than that, you need the HP Plus or FP Plus badges equipped), chances are you'll have one or two still in your inventory when you beat Bowser. |
| 236 | ** You can combine the two into a "Jelly Ultra" which restores both HP and FP by 50. Doing this may seem like a good idea, but it often causes an extreme mental block which will prevent you from using the item when you ''only'' need to restore HP or FP, and not both. Other high-end recipes can also fall into this trope. |
| 237 | ** The Triple Dip badge grants you the option of using three items in one turn, giving you the option to [[AwesomeButImpractical restore 85 more HP and FP than Mario can possibly have]], you know, when the time comes. Thankfully you can back out of using a third item if you just want to use two like with Double Dip, though it's a little less FP-efficient. |
| 238 | ** Whacka's Bump is a healing item that restores 25 HP and FP... but you can only have [[PermanentlyMissableContent a few per game]], and only [[WhatTheHellPlayer if you don't mind mentally damaging, and eventually killing, poor Whacka to get them]]. |
| 239 | ** Repel Gel makes Mario intangible and thus invincible. Unlike Bow's Outta Sight ability, it lasts three turns instead of one and still lets your partner take their turn. Naturally, the only repeatable source of it is a pig-farming mini-game with a high degree of random chance. |
| 240 | ** ''VideoGame/PaperMarioStickerStar'' has this far too much, as any and all combat relies on consumable items. You will find yourself hoarding Thing Stickers and Shinies and Flashies to the point where some players start actively avoiding battles just so they don't have to use up their items. While every sticker is unlimited in number or has a point where they always re-appear so as to not make the museum sidequest[[note]]Where one of each sticker is hung up in frames[[/note]] permanently missable, some of them are locked behind difficult courses. The Big Shiny and Megaflash Infinijump stickers both require trips to Long Fall Falls to grind, which is a reflex-demanding minigame where the player needs to avoid getting instantly killed by a giant Cheep Chomp or lose all five pieces of a raft. |
| 241 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' [=RPGs=] (''VideoGame/AttackTheLight'', ''VideoGame/SaveTheLight'', ''VideoGame/UnleashTheLight''), items are easy to hoard, as you might not see the value in using them except on bosses, by which point you have more than you'll ever need. Because of this, the games compensate by restricting in-battle item use to once per turn (although ''Unleash the Light'' gives Steven an unlockable perk that allows you to use two items in one turn once per battle). |
| 242 | * ''VideoGame/TalesSeries'': |
| 243 | ** The All-Divide halves damage that the party receives and inflicts, and while it makes battles take longer, it makes it considerably easier to withstand enemies' attacks long enough to heal. Unfortunately, given how rare they are, most players will save them for ThatOneBoss or not use them at all. Eventually, the series started making the {{Superboss}}es outright immune to All-Divides, making their use even more questionable. |
| 244 | ** Lampshaded in ''VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia'' when you discover an hourglass, a very rare item that stops time for a few seconds, a skit triggers where the party discusses using the item, with Raven firmly being this trope. Ironically, Raven can use a spell that replicates the hourglass, though getting that spell is a big GuideDangIt that is {{permanently missable|Content}}. |
| 245 | ** An Elixir fully recovers a character's HP and TP (in games that use it) and cures any status ailment, including being knocked out. If you're both diligent and lucky, you might find three of them throughout any ''Tales'' game. |
| 246 | * ''VideoGame/TorchlightII'' has Vendor Boon Scrolls, which summon a vendor of unique items that normally must be found and cannot be bought, with the equipment he sells depending on the level of the area you're in. However, the scrolls are incredibly rare (Though they can technically drop at any level from any place you can find scrolls, it may take hundreds of hours to ever find one) and can only be used once. If you do decide to use one and take a look at Boon's wares, he walks away and permanently disappears (Similarly to the enchanters that sometimes appear) regardless of whether you purchased anything, and the items he sells are highly expensive. However, a [[GoodBadBugs bug]] exists where you can prevent Boon from disappearing by quickly opening up a Waypoint Portal and entering it before he disappears. As long as the waypoint is active, Boon will never disappear. Additionally, there exists an item duplication glitch involving the shared stash and a health draining potion called the Sweet-Aide. |
| 247 | * ''VideoGame/{{Ultima}}'' frequently features the Glass Sword, which is very much one of these, killing any enemy instantly but breaking after use. |
| 248 | * ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' seems to be deliberately invoking this. Early in the game, you receive a slice of butterscotch-cinnamon pie that restores ''all'' HP. If you take the normal path and actually save it all the way to the [[spoiler:[[DiscOneFinalBoss Disc-One]]]] FinalBoss, [[spoiler:because the pie is his ex-wife's special recipe, the smell will weaken his resolve, reducing his Attack and Defense]]. You can also use it during the TrueFinalBoss fight, to instantly win the IKnowYoureInThereSomewhereFight against both the aforementioned neutral-path FinalBoss and the character who gave you the pie. And due to the way the game's endings work, you might actually use the same one slice of pie to do both of these in the same run. |
| 249 | * In ''VideoGame/ValkyrieProfile'', there are two types of items that fall into this - Slayer weapons, and Great Magic staves. The first deal insane damage to certain types of enemies, but are breakable, and you'll never find one that isn't. Great Magic staves are stupidly powerful (the first one you'll find is in the triple digits for MAG when what your mage likely has barely breaks two digits), and naturally, unlock the specials for mages. They're also extremely breakable - some have a one in three chance of shattering. Unlisted are tricks for preserving these items (oneshot the enemy to keep the slayer, just don't use Great Magic to keep the stave), so newbies or inexperienced players let these sit. |
| 250 | * ''VideoGame/WildArms'' had the extremely useful "Ambrosia" potion that revives, fully heals health and magic points and removes all status changes for the entire party. |
| 251 | |
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