Note: Once parts of this article have accumulated a sufficient amount of examples, feel free to draft a separate trope for them at Trope Launch Pad.
This is basically a list of the generic item types you'll find in a CRPG:
- An item to cure each of the Status Effects. This includes antidotes for poison, cures for paralysis, cures for sleep (although most games allow sleep to be cured if the victim takes damage), cures for being turned to stone and so on.
- An item which cures all status effects. Usually rare and/or expensive at the start of the game, but becomes trivially easy to stockpile by the end.
- An item which heals Hit Points. See Heal Thyself, Healing Potion and Hyperactive Metabolism, to heal by eating food, for examples. There may be progressively more powerful versions of the item, to be useful at higher levels of the game. This may go for two or three tiers, up to an item that heals all hit points.
- An item which heals Mana Points, or the game's equivalent, and the more powerful versions. Compared to healing items, mana recovery items tend to be either much more expensive, or unavailable for purchase.
- An item which heals both HP and MP, usually up to the max of both. Often an unpurchasable rarity, in which case see Emergency Energy Tank.
- Items which revive Only Mostly Dead characters. Often with different versions which revive the target with ever increasing health.
- Items which replicate the effects of spells.
- Single use items which can damage enemies (but don't specifically cast a spell).
- Weapons or Equipment that cast a spell or other form of Special Attack when used as an Item.
- Items which permanently boost a character's level or stats.
- Items which temporarily boost stats.
- An item or spell that wards off Random Encounters.
- An item or spell that increases the amount of Random Encounters, or even calls them up on the spot.
- Mass effect versions of any of the previous. IE, a cure potion that can be used on the entire party in one character's turn.
In addition, most RPGs feature a Warp Whistle and/or Escape Rope to allow quick travel/teleportation to or from towns or dungeons.
Examples of individual status effect cures
- Pokémon has many items that fit the checklist:
- For the major status effects, there are: Antidote for poison, Awakening for sleep, Paralyze Heal for paralysis, Ice Heal for freeze, and Burn Heal for burn. There are also Full Heals and some foods like berries or cookies that remove status conditions.
- For health, there are: Potions, Super Potions, Hyper Potions, and Max Potions that heal increasing amounts of hit points. Full Restores both fully replenish a Pokemon's health and remove all status conditions.
- Ethers, Elixirs, Max Ethers, and Max Elixirs to restore Power Points (a.k.a. mana), which can usually only be found rather than bought.
- Revive to revive a fainted Pokemon to half of full health and a rarer Max Revive to fully restore a fainted Pokemon's health. There is also the once-per-game Sacred Ash that revives every Pokemon in a player's party.
- Vitamins that give permanent boosts to a Pokemon's Effort Values (stats), as well as Rare Candies which instantly level a Pokemon up.
- In-battle items that temporarily multiply a Pokemon's stats.
- Repel, Super Repel, and Max Repel to ward wild encounters off.
- Escape Rope to instantly exit a cave or dungeon.
- Generations after the first include berries which can be attached to Mons, to activate as soon as they are needed. And introduced in gen III are herbs which activate when needed and remove a variety of the minor side effects (e.g. infatuation or reduced stats).
- The Final Fantasy series has loads. For instance, the Golden Needle/Soft Potion cures petrification.
- Some of these items toggle a Status Effect. Using such an item on a character without that status will give them the status. Occasionally this will be useful, or even mandatory. III, notably, has some rather infamous dungeons that require your entire party to have Mini status.
- Status-toggling items can usually be used on the enemy as well, making them useful both for curing your characters and for attacking.
- In some games, certain monsters will take damage or suffer instant death when a certain status-curing item is used on them. For instance, using a Golden Needle / Soft Potion on a stony or statue-like monster in V will hurt it, as a helpful NPC will tell you.
- EarthBound (1994), with its more modern varieties of Status Effects, has cold remedies that cure the common cold, and wet towels that cure sunstroke.
- SaGa Frontier
- In NetHack:
- Delayed action petrification can be cured by ingesting anything which is acidic, which for some reason includes lizard corpses, which conveniently never rot away like other corpses do.
- Lycanthropy can be cured by eating a sprig of wolfsbane or drinking holy water.
- Dis-X (where X is the condition) in Shin Megami Tensei games.
- The Dragon Quest series has antidotal herbs, which cure poison, and moonwort bulbs, which cure paralysis. Dragon Quest VIII and Dragon Quest IX added upgraded versions of these items that restore HP in addition to curing these status ailments.
- In Super Paper Mario, most healing items can cure poison.
- The first Shadow Hearts features different and sometimes esoteric curative for each one status ailment found on the game, such as Mermaid's Tears that cure poisoning and Angel's Feathers that cure paralysis.
- The Lufia
series has unusually-named variants of these, such as Shriek for awakening a sleeping teammate, or Mystery Pins for undoing petrification.
- Darkest Dungeon has Bandages, Antivenom and Laudanum to cure Bleed, Blight and Horror respectively.
- The Elder Scrolls series has potions and scrolls of "Cure ______" (Disease, Poison, Paralysis, etc.). You can also create your own out of raw ingredients using the Potion-Brewing Mechanic and your Alchemy skill.
Examples of multiple status effect cures
- Full Heals and Lum Berries from Pokémon
- Various examples from the Final Fantasy series
- Refreshing Herbs from Mario & Luigi, and Tasty Tonics from Paper Mario.
- Snake Oil from SaGa Frontier
- Break Free inspirations in City of Heroes
- In NetHack using a unicorn horn will cure all status effects except for polymorphing, lycanthropy, delayed petrification and delayed turning-into-slime. However, any individual use of a horn isn't guaranteed to work, so having a unicorn horn isn't proof against status effects causing a game over.
- EarthBound (1994) has Refreshing Herbs, which cure most status ailments. Secret Herbs, Cups of Lifenoodles, and Horns of Life, although usually used to revive unconscious characters, can also cure pretty much every status ailment in the game.
- Limes in Dubloon. They aren't even as necessary since status ailments are cured instantly after a battle.
- Unlike the first game, both Shadow Hearts: Covenant and Shadow Hearts: From The New World only has one item called Soul Benediction that cured all status ailments. We also had Phoenix Tails that cure all ring abnormalities.
- The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky has an unusual variant where all of the curing items (except one) cure multiple status effects. Insulating Tape cures mute; Purging Balm cures poison, seal, and blind; Softening Balm cures freeze and petrify; Smelling Salts cure confuse, sleep, and faint; and Curia Balm cures all status effects. They also each restore 100 HP. There is also an item (not found in the first game) called an S-Tablet that cures status debuffs. Some food items also cure various status effects in addition to healing.
- Remedies in Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark will remove all debuffs from a character.
- Small Antidote, Antidote, and Mass Antidote cure a set amount of debuffs in Monster Sanctuary
Examples of magic/tech point restoring items
- Ethers from Final Fantasy
- Ethers and Elixers from Pokemon. Due to Pokemon moves using their own PP, Ethers and Max Ethers only restore PP for a specific move, while Elixers and Max Elixers restore PP for all moves.
- Syrup and Honey in Super Mario RPG
- Catch a Breath inspirations in City of Heroes
- Among others, Garlic Water from Disgaea
- The Tales Series has fruit-flavored Gels/Gummy. Orange and Pine heals 30% and 60% TP.
- "Chakra" or "Soul" items in different Shin Megami Tensei games.
- The Dragon Quest series has magic water, and more recently, sage's elixirs. Prayer rings also restore MP, but have a limited number of uses.
- The Mother series has plenty. EarthBound Beginnings has PSI Stones, EarthBound (1994) has Bottles of Water, PSI caramel, Magic Truffles, and others, and Mother 3 has magic pastries.
- Mana Leaves/Seeds/Roots/Extracts from the Shadow Hearts trilogy.
- EP Charge I, II, and III (the second of those also being known as EP Charge EX) in The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky.
- The Elder Scrolls has potions/scrolls of Restore Magicka. You can also create your own out of raw ingredients using the Potion-Brewing Mechanic and your Alchemy skill.
- Mana Stones in Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark.
Examples of HP and MP healing items
- Elixirs and Megalixirs from Final Fantasy. Megalixirs actually heal all of the party members currently in combat.
- Various types of cake and mushrooms in Paper Mario.
- The Golden Mushrooms in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, and the Star Candies in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story.
- The Tales Series has Melange Gels, which heal 30% of both HP and TP, and Miracle Gels, which heal 60% HP and TP. Also, Elixirs heal both to full.
Examples of items which revive downed characters
- Revives and Max Revives from Pokemon
- Phoenix Downs from Final Fantasy
- Life Shrooms from Paper Mario and 1-Up Mushrooms from Mario and Luigi.
- Life Bottles from the Tales Series
- Awaken inspirations in City of Heroes
- Revival Beads Revival Gems, and Balm of Life in Shin Megami Tensei games.
- Amulet of Lifesaving in NetHack. As a single character game, this is your only 'get out of stupidity free' card.
- Horns of Life in EarthBound (1994) and Cups of Lifenoodles and Secret Herbs in EarthBound (1994) and Mother 3.
- Yggdrasil leaves from the Dragon Quest series. You can usually get them for free late into the game, but you can only carry one at a time unless you find one in a treasure chest.
- Rum in Dubloon.
- Talismans of Luck and Mercy from the Shadow Hearts trilogy. The original game also features Talismans of Wisdom, Purity, and Power for different ratios of HP, MP, and SP recovery, but for simplicity's sake they are absent from sequels.
- Reviving Balm and Celestial Balm in The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky. The former restores 1000 HP; the latter restores all HP.
- Phoenix Ashes in Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark.
- The Fire Emblem series is famous for its use of Permadeath: characters that run out of HP die, and stay dead. In some games, however, there are items that can revive allies who have been killed in action, although their rarity and limited functionality makes them Too Awesome to Use:
- In Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light, the Aum stave allows the user to revive a fallen comrade. It can only be used once, and is only equipable by Elice, so if she died before you got it, it's worthless. In the DS remake, other women of royal blood can use it, but the single-use limitation still applies, and it cannot revive whoever was chosen to make a Heroic Sacrifice at the end of the Prologue.
- Fire Emblem Gaiden and its remake, Echoes, has a handful of special statues located in some shrines that can be used to revive dead allies. Each of these statues can only be used a limited number of times, however, and that pool of uses is also expended when using their other functions such as stat increases, so one must carefully consider how and when to use these statues.
- Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War has the Valkyrie stave, which can revive a fallen comrade. Like the Aum stave, it can only be used once before breaking, and can only be equipped by Claude and his son. In addition, it cannot revive those who lacked "quintessence", which means anyone who died of natural causes cannot be brought back. Unlike the Aum stave, it can be repaired, albeit for a very steep price.
- Fire Emblem Fates has the Bifrost staff. Like the Aum or Valkyrie staves, it is a single-use item, and can only be equipped by Maids and Butlers, of which there are only a handful that can be possibly recruited. In addition, it can only revive whoever died most recently, and it cannot revive anyone who suffered a Plotline Death.
Examples of spell replicating items
- Many examples in Final Fantasy, such as the Magic Lamp that casts a random summoning spell.
- As well as Golden Sun.
- The Elder Scrolls has various potions and scrolls which replicate the effects of spells. The benefit is that a character not skilled in that spell's governing school of magic can still get those spell's effects. The downside compared to a spell is needing to carry the item.
- Skies of Arcadia has boxes that cast spells. Rather than having a number of charges, boxes have a chance of breaking every time they're used.
- Technically, however, many items in the game fall somewhere between this and the standard restoration categories. Basic healing crystals cast the same spell on the target as the basic green magic spell and both always heal 500 HP. Same goes for status effect crystals/spells and kind of for revive crystals/spells except the spell has a 50% failure rate while the crystal doesn't.
- Pokedolls (from Pokémon, natch) have the same effect as Teleport. The equippable item Smoke Ball guarantees an escape from battle if the Pokemon holding it is battling. Also, the X-stat items mimic stat boosting moves and the dire hit mimics focus energy.
- In Roguelike games wands and scrolls replicate the functions of many spells.
- "X Rocks" "X Gems", and sometimes "X Magatama" each cast a specific spell in Shin Megami Tensei games.
- Trials of Mana has items for most spells to account for all the possible party setups. No group needs go without healing, stat-ups or elemental weapons.
Examples of single use offensive items
- Super Mario examples
- Rock Candy in Super Mario RPG.
- Paper Mario series
- Fire Flowers, Shooting Stars, and Thunder Rages
- Pebbles, Egg Missiles, and Dusty Hammers from Paper Mario.
- HP Drains, Ice Storms, Thunder Bolts, Earth Quakes, and POW Blocks in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.
- Many examples in Final Fantasy. Most interestingly, the Ninja's "Throw" ability in many games lets them turn any inventory item into one of these.
- As well as Golden Sun and the Tales Series.
- The magic stone item in Sa Ga Frontier.
- In NetHack potions with negative effects can be thrown at monsters; if the bottle hits and spills its liquid on the monster it will get whatever negative status effect drinking it would have caused. Also, you can throw cream pies at monsters, with the Pie in the Face temporarily blinding them. It's called Developer's Foresight.
- Jeff can fire bottle rockets at enemies in EarthBound (1994).
- The second The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky game introduces food items that damage enemies instead of healing.
- The Elder Scrolls (starting with Oblivion) has poisons which work in this fashion. They are applied to your weapon and the effect is applied to the next enemy you strike. The series also has single-use scrolls which can contain a a spell effect. (Scroll of Fireball for instance.)
- Rocks in Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark can be thrown at enemies to inflict a Fixed Damage Attack. Corrosive Bombs and Noxious Bombs do no damage but will lower the target’s Defense and Resistance stats, respectively.
Examples of usable weapons and equipment
- Most weapons/items with an Elemental Affinity in Shining Force (Also Halberds). However, using them too many times would cause the weapon to destroy itself. Fortunately, the game would warn you when the weapon was on it's last use, and you could have it repaired.
- Staves in Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete. In Eternal Blue Complete, the devs realized there was no reason to use the item's regular attack, and so switched the attack to these.
- Every object in Phantom Brave. Not just weapons, but loaves of bread, vases, rocks, trees, fish, clumps of grass, crates, and more. Otherwise, the game pretty much averts this trope with no inventory items at all.
- The Dragon Quest series has plenty of these.
- Bravely Default has a few of these, such as the Sage's Staff (which cases Raise when used as an item).
Examples of items which Buff Stats
- X-Items from Pokémon.
- A wide variety of drugs in the Fallout series could increase various stats, with a chance of addiction and withdrawal. Drug use also results in temporarily decreased stats after the effects wear off, even if you don't become addicted.
- Peppers in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga — the Red ones boost power, and the Green ones boost defense.
- Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time adds the Blue Pepper, which boosts Speed.
- The Power Punch, Courage Shell, and Repel Cape, among others, from Paper Mario.
- Some of the food items in The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky grant stat buffs in addition to healing HP.
- Holy water in Darkest Dungeon buffs resistances to bleed, blight, stuns and debuffs for three turns. The Blood serves to buff up heroes with the Crimson Curse, in different ways depending on how bad the curse is acting up.
- The Elder Scrolls series has potions and scrolls which can temporarily boost your skills, attributes, magic resistances, etc. You can also create your own out of raw ingredients using the Potion-Brewing Mechanic and your Alchemy skill.
Aversions
- SaGa Frontier has no revive item, as the mechanics of the game mean downed characters can be brought back by normal healing. However, there are special Items that can restore Life Points on the spot.
- In the earlier SaGa games, those items are a bit more common. In Romancing SaGa 2, the only known item that can restore Hit Points can be bought from a witch for 10,000 (the money Cap). In Romancing SaGa 3 these items are mostly item drops.
- Similarly, the Disgaea series has no revive items or even spells. You have to pay a healer between battles (This also means a measure of redundancy in your force is recommended, in case someone gets killed in an Item World run).
- In Devil Survivor and its sequel there are zero items to be had. Battles tend to be pretty short and if you don't have any demons or humans with skills to heal the damage and ailments too bad.
- Xenoblade Chronicles 1 has only one category of usable items — those which change the party's Relationship Values. Healing and buffing can only occur during battle, or the automatic regeneration of health between battles. So, if you ran into a trap with little or no healing on your chosen threesome...
Subversions
- Final Fantasy XI has many of these items, but after about ten or twenty levels the effectiveness of most of them are too small for the cost and inventory space to justify using besides healing Status Effects, and the other ones that are worth using are either drops from endgame monsters or stupidly expensive to craft, making those last resorts only. Worse still, using many of these items invokes the universal cooldown timer for a few precious seconds, preventing you from taking any action aside from continuing to auto-attack. Oh, and Phoenix Downs? They don't exist. Alchemy Needs More Love.
