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Loot-Making Attack

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Not always will there be Money Spiders from which the player can collect loot, but sometimes there is a special technique, ability, or equipment that has a higher chance, if not guarantee, to create items or resources from defeated enemies, however improbable it may be.

Examples include:

Compare Loot Command, Video Game Stealing, Rewarding Vandalism, Random Drop Booster, and Money Multiplier. Contrast Piñata Enemy and Disadvantageous Disintegration.


Examples:

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    Action Adventure 
  • Devil May Cry 5: The Dr. Faust hat given to Dante midway through the game creates Red Orbs with which the player can purchase and upgrade abilities. However, most of its attacks and abilities also cost Red Orbs (dealing more damage the more Red Orbs it uses), and Dante will also lose Red Orbs if he's hit while using it. Upgrading Dr. Faust to its maximum level greatly increases the amount of Orbs it uses and the damage it deals, while also increasing the amount Dante earns to such absurd degrees that a player can unlock every ability in a few hours.
  • Path of Exile: In a general sense, stacking the "Increased Item Quantity" modifier on equipment essentially turns every attack into a Loot Making Attack to a degree. The long-removed but aptly named "Item Quantity Support" passive skill gem turns any skill gems linked to it into a more powerful version of this trope at its maximum gem level.
  • Warframe:
    • The Broken Scepter can create health orbs and energy orbs from fallen organic and mechanic enemies respectively.
    • Nekros's Desecrate ability is able to force fallen enemies to drop more loot.
    • Titania's Tribute ability turns enemies into collectible buffs and debuffs.
    • Hydroid's Pilfering Tentacles augment allows the tentacles he summons to boost the amount of loot dropped by enemies in their grasp.
    • Khora's Pilfering Strangledome augment makes enemies grabbed by her Strangledome drop more items when they die.
    • Atlas's Ore Gaze augment makes enemies drop items when he petrifies them.
    • Voruna's Lycath's Hunt gives enemies an increased chance of dropping orbs when killed in certain ways: health orbs for melee kills, and energy for headshots.
  • Honkai Impact 3rd: Some Stigmata in the game will make the enemy drop something (depending on the stigmata) by the user's attacks, usually with a cooldown. One example is the Theresa: Gluttony Stigma, which makes your successful attacks drop candy every 5 seconds that can be picked up to increase your damage output.
  • The Legend of Zelda:
    • The Legend of Zelda: It is possible to manipulate what items enemies drop because drops are not actually random, but are determined by a set of hidden values. For example, if you kill ten enemies without taking damage and use a bomb to kill the tenth one, then if enemy drops an item, it will be a bomb. The mechanics are explained in this video.
    • In The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, freezeing an enemy with the Ice Rod or Ether Medallion then smashing it with the Magic Hammer usually causes it to drop a magic refill.
    • In The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, Goomba Stomping the Goombas causes them to drop a heart.
  • Enemies in Ōkami can be made to drop demon horns if they are killed in a certain way that varies depending on the type of enemy. There also are two special moves Amaterasu can unlock that make enemies drop demon horns, which actually just consist of peeing on the enemy or dropping an explosive poop. A maximum of four demon horns can be collected from each enemy if both special moves are used and the enemy is killed the right way since the poop attack makes two demons horns but each move only works once on each enemy.

    MMORPG 
  • Diablo II: The barbarian has abilities in the skill tree that let them search enemy corpses for a chance to find extra potions and gear.
  • Kingdom of Loathing has various items and techniques (such as the pumpkin bomb and the Disintegrate skill) that not only instantly kill a non-boss enemy but make all of its potential loot guaranteed to drop. To limit their use most of them cause the "Everything Looks Yellow" status effect, which prevents using them again while it lasts.
  • Zandalari Trolls in World of Warcraft have a passive which allows them to obtain more gold from defeated enemies.

    Multiplayer Online Battle Arena 
  • Dota 2 has the Alchemist who can obtain more gold from defeated enemies. In addition, the "Hand of Midas" item will instantly kill a neutral creep for gold.
  • SMITE's Fafnir has an ability to obtain more gold when he deals the finishing blow. He also becomes more powerful the more gold he has in his inventory.
  • League of Legends has a few instances of giving an additional bonus of gold from killing enemies. Twisted Fate's "Loaded Dice" passive gives him 1-6 additional gold for each killnote , Gangplank's "Parrrley" grants a boost of gold and the exclusive "Silver Serpents" currency as plunder, the "Triumph" Power-Up rune grants bonus gold from killing enemies (as well as restores some health), and the item "The Collector" grants bonus gold on kills as well as extra execution damage to make getting them easier.

    Platformer 

    Real Time Strategy 
  • Warcraft III:
    • Some units in The Horde faction can be given the pillage upgrade, allowing them to generate extra resources when attacking enemy buildings.
    • The Goblin Alchemist hero unit has Transmute as its Ultimate ability, turning any non-hero enemy unit into gold which is added to the coffers of the player controlling that hero.
  • Warlords Battlecry III:
    • Some units have the ability to generate extra resources for their faction when killing enemies; kobolds and assassins can earn gold from their assassination ability, basilisks can generate stone with their petrifying gaze, and the celestial dragon and fae tower can crystalize enemies into magic crystals.
    • Bronze Golems and Zombies can be given the Scavenge ability, letting them generate extra resources from corpses (zombies) or the remains of destroyed buildings (golems).

    Roguelikes 
  • For the King: The Astronomer class' unique ability "Black Hole" has a small chance to trigger at random and instantly reduces the enemy to a chunk of Star Matter, a rare consumable item that grants a powerful Protective Charm to the party.

    Role Playing Games 
  • Golden Sun: killing an enemy with a Djinn of the element it's weak to will make it drop more money, experience, and gives a higher chance of dropping an item.
  • Final Fantasy VI: When summoned, the Ragnarok Esper will attempt to transform an enemy into an item.
  • Final Fantasy VII: The Morph command causes the character to use a weakened attack that will transform an enemy into an item if used as the killing blow.
  • In Final Fantasy VIII, the Card command could turn a suitably weakened enemy into a Triple Triad card, which could in turn be refined into various items or spells. As a secondary bonus, defeating an enemy this way granted no Exp, but full AP, useful in a game where the optimal strategy is to avoid leveling up as much as possible until late in the game.
  • Final Fantasy XIV: Rogues and Ninjas have the Mug ability, boosting drop rates if used as or before the killing blow.
  • Various Final Fantasy titles (such as Final Fantasy IX and Final Fantasy X) will have an ability called "Mug" which turns Video Game Stealing into an attack.
  • In Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm, the skill "Trick or Treat" can instantly kill a monster and turn it into a Sweets type item.
  • In Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis, Jess has the skill Funny Pouch, which deals large damage to a single target. If the skill kills the target, you will get a Sweets type item.
  • Pokémon:
    • The move Pay Day creates money for its trainer each time it's used, with the awarded amount of coins being based on the level of the Pokémon using the move. During Generations 1 and 2, the amount of money scattered was two times the user's level. From Generation 3 onward, the multiplier was increased, so that the money received per use is now five times the user's level. If used repeatedly during a lengthy battle, Pay Day can generate more money than the prize money awarded for winning the battle.
    • In Sword and Shield, Gigantimax Meowth's exclusive move G-Max Gold Rush takes this to its logical conclusion, where the money received is one hundred times the user's level for each time the move is consecutively used (100x for the first, 200x for the second, and 300x for the third, for a total of 600x Meowth's level). By farming the Champion's Cup in the post game and using the move three times each battle with an amulet coin equipped, you can easily reach the maximum prize of 99,999 money per battle.
    • In Scarlet and Violet, Gholdengo's Secret Art Make It Rain gives money after the battle ends like Pay Day.
    • Pokémon Mystery Dungeon also has the Itemizer Orb, a rare item which turns the enemy into an item.
  • Valkyrie Profile video games allow characters to juggle enemies who are either staggered or airborne (depending on the game), rewarding them with experience gems, orbs that reduce wait time for special attacks, or even items. Some characters have attacks that generate additional orbs if they hit an enemy in the right conditions - Natalia in Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume is notable for this, as is Lucien from Lenneth.
  • Dragon Quest XI:
    • The "Itemized Kill" power allows Erik to steal an item every time, with a greater-than-usual chance of stealing an enemy's rare item, while the hero deals damage.
    • Later, "Hallelujah" guarantees that the party will get the maximum number of loot drops (three) at the end of combat, and that all three will be rare items.
  • In Fallout 4:
    • The fourth rank of the Fortune Finder perk will cause enemies to occasionally explode into a pile of caps upon being killed.
    • Killing an enemy with a plasma weapon grants a chance to find Nuclear Material as a bonus resource on their corpse.
  • Chefs in Miitopia have the "Monster Dinner" skill, which instantly defeats a monster and turns it into a food drop. This drop is separate from both the random post-battle drop and the Cat's "Steal Grub" skill, potentially allowing a lucky player to get three food drops from the same enemy.
  • In Wild ARMs 3, killing an enemy with an elemental spell tends to drop a gem of the corresponding element type, which, in turn, can be used to summon a spell of that element.
  • In the Monster Hunter franchise breaking certain enemy parts or damaging parts under certain conditions can generate a "shiny" loot drop. Similarly, breaking certain parts will guarantee an end of mission drop, regardless of whether you win, such as breaking a horn to receive a horn drop. It's also possible to create extra "carve" items, such as severing a tail to get one extra piece of loot. Different titles in the series have different requirements and options for additional loot drops, such as the Plunderblade in Monster Hunter: World which either creates a shiny drop or a piece of end-mission loot.
  • Disgaea 2: Enemies killed by a bow-wielding unit have a 30% chance to drop a treasure chest, its contents ranging from EXP to money to items depending on the bonus rank of the map.
  • In Shadow Hearts: From The New World, finishing an enemy off with Mao's "Cat Touch" attack is the only way to acquire cat coins, the currency used in her personal Side Quest.
  • In Marenian Tavern Story: Patty and the Hungry God, there's the Slashing Down skill. Enemies defeated with it will drop more items, and since you need all the ingredients you can get your hands on, it provides a useful strength boost over a normal attack, and more than half your party members learn it, it ends up being used through much of the game.

    Shoot-Em-Ups 
  • In Touhou Kishinjou ~ Double Dealing Character, Marisa's Type B variant has a Smart Bomb that launches an orb that converts bullets it touches into power-up items. Given that DDC has a focus on auto-collecting items for points and important items like lives and bombs, a diligent player can abuse the bomb to generate lots of points and max out their life stock.
  • In BLUE REVOLVER, firing your special weapon will cause gold gems to drop from enemies that it destroys. For best effect, this should be done with an 8-hit chain active; this will result in the gems each being worth 64 times as many points as if you fired your special weapon without a chain running.
  • In DoDonPachi Resurrection, activating Hyper Counter will allow your shots to cancel bullets for star medals.

    Shooters (First- and Third-Person) 
  • Doom (2016): The number of HP-restoring items that drop from enemies greatly increases if you kill them with a gory melee Finishing Move. If you use the chainsaw, they'll drop more ammunition.
  • Team Fortress 2: The Scout's Candy Cane melee weapon will cause any enemies killed to drop a small health pack.
  • Bioshock: Inverted with the Winter Blast Plasmid; if an enemy frozen by it is then shattered to pieces afterwards, no loot will be available for the player.
  • Overwatch: Reaper formerly was able to collect health orbs from enemies that were killed.
  • Spec Ops: The Line: finishing off mortally wounded enemies before they expire on their own increases the amount of ammo they drop.
  • Fallout 76: Played with; the Luck perk "Mystery Meat" has a chance of generating random forms of animal meat by healing with Stimpaks.

    Turn-Based Strategy 
  • Nintendo Wars: Sasha's Super CO Power converts 50% of damage her units deal into War Funds.
  • Fire Emblem:
    • Fire Emblem: Awakening has the Despoil skill, learned by those who have access to the Barbarian class. With this skill, there's a chance, based on the character's luck stat, that upon defeating an enemy the character may gain a Small Bullion, which can be sold for 1,000 G.
    • Fire Emblem Fates has the Salvage Blow skill, learned by The Blacksmith class, allows users a chance to receive a random weapon if they initiate combat.
  • In Phantom Brave, the Merchant's Profit Punch attack makes the enemy drop gold if it hits successfully.

    Wide Open Sandbox 

    Other 
  • Trimps: The Scryer formation halves attack, health and block in exchange for doubling resources from loot (barring Helium) and granting a chance to find Dark Essence starting from Zone 181.
  • Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition: The spell "Flesh to Salt" was introduced in the Sourcebook Sandstorm as a variant on the default Taken for Granite spell. Enterprising players then noticed that salt is a trade good worth its weight in silver.
  • I Woke Up As a Dungeon, Now What?: Normally, killing a dungeon monster causes it to disintegrate into mana, leaving behind only whatever the dungeon system Randomly Drops. Harvesters, however, can use a bit of their own mana to make a monster's corpse fully real, allowing additional parts to be harvested.

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