History Main / AntidoteEffect

The Antidote is a staple item in just about every {{RPG}} that has ever existed. It has a simple use: it will cure a character from a StatusEffect. However, shortly into the game, the character will usually acquire some kind of spell that serves the same purpose, rendering any antidotes in your inventory redundant. Some games also have status effects go away if you win the battle or wait a certain number of turns, meaning that you can tough it out if you want to.

The Antidote is a staple item in just about every {{RPG}} that has ever existed. It has a simple use: it will cure a character from a [[StandardStatusEffects Standard Status Effect]]. However, shortly into the game, the character will usually acquire some kind of spell that serves the same purpose, rendering any antidotes in your inventory redundant. Some games also have status effects go away if you win the battle or wait a certain number of turns, meaning that you can tough it out if you want to.

* If your spell-casting party members are unable to do the job themselves due to being [[StandardStatusEffects silenced]], out of {{Mana}}, or [[NonLethalKO knocked out]]. Alternately, they may be preoccupied fighting other monsters, or you may need to conserve their MP for an upcoming BossBattle. Either way, you need someone ''else'' to do the job in the meantime.

* ''VideoGame/BatenKaitosOrigins'', an {{RPG}} with a card-based battle system, contains literally hundreds of cards with various esoteric effects, from completely restoring one character's HP (but at the cost of putting that character to [[StandardStatusEffects sleep]]) to reducing the frequency with which the enemy party's turn comes up to restoring a character's HP equal to the amount of overkill damage they do. However, the normal, no-frills healing items are perfectly effective, and including a lot of extraneous situational cards is a good way to get your hand bogged down with useless junk in a critical situation. The most efficient deck setup for nearly the entire game is twenty to twenty-five basic attack cards, ten to twelve super moves, three to four healing items, and one revival item. Thankfully the developers realized this and allowed you to create multiple decks and switch not only anytime from the inventory screen but also before continuing after a GameOver; you can create extra decks that utilize these esoteric cards and only switch to them when in the rare occasions they'll be useful. Multiple decks can even use the same copy of any one card.

[[folder: Collectible Card Games]]

[[folder: First-Person Shooter]]
* ''VideoGame/Battlefield2142'' features unlockable weapons — and very limited slots to put them into. Several unlocks are useful in extremly specific situations but are far outclassed by other, more generally useful unlocks.

[[folder: Third-Person Shooter]]

[[folder: Roleplaying Games]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Culdcept}}'', drawing from its ''Tabletopgame/MagicTheGathering'' roots, has quite a number of very useful if situational spells/creatures/items to draw from or creatures that have useful powers (or combos) given time to develop. However, due to the way the game works (money is mana, functionally, and only earned by rent or passing go), the strict deck building rules, and the random nature of moving around the board (you roll dice), it's usually a better idea to stick with more simple and straightforward combos.
* ''VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing'''s soft green echo eyedrop antidote is a cure-all for any status effect. It's possible to perm all skills to heal status ailments, these are easy to farm and preferable to whore. There are many other items with the Antidote Effect that may be hoarded and be left unused at the end of ascension ("Why do I still have a dozen gobs of wet hair, two 8-balls, fourteen chaos butterflies, and a depantsing bomb?")

* In ''VideoGame/DokaponKingdom'' Trap Dodgers are this. The purpose of a Trap Dodger is to automatically negate a trap when one lands on one. Traps can only placed by players and their effects are random, ranging from a small amount of damage to a easily cured random status effect. Players can only carry 6-10 items at a time depending on class, a Trap Dodger would take up a slot and can only be used once. Thus Trap Dodgers are almost never used because they take up valuable inventory space, trap effects are easily dealt with, and traps are rarely used.
* In ''VideoGame/ExitFate'', you don't have a BagOfSharing for items in combat, so you can only equip each party member with two items they can use - there are several status effects, many of which are rather devastating, so you probably won't cover everything. On the other hand, your supply if available magics is shared, so as long as you've purchased a few and you have the MP, you can save yourself fairly easily.

-> '''Player:''' "Um, I'm out of MP!"
-> '''Archibald:''' "Then use an ether!"
-> '''Player:''' "But- but you can't buy ether."
-> '''Archibald:''' "It's the ''final battle''!"
-> '''Player:''' "But I only have 85 of them."

Compare ComMons. Contrast UselessItem and UselessUsefulSpell.

-->-- Creator/ProZD, ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgU4Oum8SLg when you have to conserve every single healing item in your inventory JUST IN CASE]]''

-->-- Creator/{{Prozd}}, ''When you have to conserve every single healing item in your inventory JUST IN CASE''

** ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'' has this bad on NewGamePlus modes, especially with unlockable weapons. The [[BottomlessMagazines Infinite Rocket Launcher]] all but eliminates the need for Hand Grenades, while the [[FrickinLaserBeams PRL]] does the same for Photon Grenades. The [[MoreDakka Chicago Typewriter]] renders automatic weapons (and by association their ammo) comparatively pointless, and the [[InstantDeathBullet Hand Cannon]] can punch through virtually anything, often killing it in a single shot. The yellow herbs, which increase your health cap upon use, turn your Green+Red herb mixes into incredibly shiny VendorTrash once you max your (and Ashley's) health cap. And of course, maxing your money capacity (which admittedly takes ''several'' playthroughs) makes even VendorTrash worthless.

* If your spell-casting party members either are unable to do the job themself due to being [[StandardStatusEffects silenced]], out of {{Mana}}, or [[NonLethalKO knocked out]]. Alternately, they may be preoccupied fighting other monsters, or you may need to conserve their MP for an upcoming BossBattle. Either way, you need someone ''else'' to do the job in the meantime.

** In ''VideoGame/LegendOfGrimrock'', there straight up is no status-curing magic. Items (antivenom for poison; antidotes for disease) are the only option other than waiting for the status to expire. ''Legend of Grimrock 2'' adds paralysis, also cured by antidotes, which never expires by itself.

* In some systems, spells require more time to execute than using items; if a character is dying of poison, this could make the difference between keeping them alive and having to ''resurrect'' them later. This also applies to the "tough out" strategy — if the poison is likely to kill a character in two turns, the fact that it will go away in three is irrelevant.

* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil'' has only two enemies that can poison you and both only appear in one area. Blue Herbs cure poison and can be mixed with other herbs to let you heal and cure poison at the same time. You can wind up carrying Blue Herbs or its mixtures and never needing to use them once you get past the enemies that can poison you. The sequels keep up the same trend. Blue and Red Herbs can't be mixed together either, but ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2Remake'' does give the Blue Herbs a secondary effect by giving you temporary increased defense when mixed with a Red Herb.

*** Phoenix Downs also suffer from this, unusually for the series. They are rare and you can only carry one at once, but they can also only be used out of combat, which is rarely useful. At best, it skips the waiting period after changing to a different class so you can cast Raise.

* Used and twisted in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG'' Early on from the first shop you can grab Trueform and Wake Up Pins for cheap [[spoiler: The Wake Up pin is for free if you know where to grab it]], accessories that negate a certain type of status effect, conveniently both status ailments that will be used in the next area. [[spoiler:And then there's the Safety Ring in the sunken ship which while also making the wearer immune to status ailments also completely {{Antimagic}}'s certain enemy spells. (But not all of them)]] From roughly the halfway point onward, Toadstool joins the party, while already having access to both a single-target and an entire-party spanning spell [[spoiler:Namely Therapy and Group Hug]] that cure every status effect [[spoiler:And they also have the added effect of dealing massive amounts of healing to the party to boot!]] making Able Juices and Freshen Ups virtually useless.

** ''VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue'' eventually gave the player the Poké Flute item, an infinite-use cure for sleep that rendered the one-use-only Awakening item completely useless.

* You find a dungeon or cave where [[YourMagicsNoGoodHere magic isn't allowed or doesn't work]], or an enemy who can [[AntiMagic negate it]].

** Healing items are less necessary than in traditional [=RPGs=], thanks to Pokémon Centers fully healing and curing everything ''for free''. You'll be able to save virtually every item in the game for the Elite Four.

*** The GBA and PSP remakes change the magic charge system to a magic point system, and the Antidote and Anti-Stone spells are comically cheap in terms of MP cost.

** Avoided in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'', where casting spells takes time, leaves your Priest vulnerable while casting, and is not 100% effective. The "Item" skill works immediately and always works. It remains valuable throughout the game.

* ''VideoGame/BatenKaitosOrigins'', an {{RPG}} with a card-based battle system, contains literally hundreds of cards with various esoteric effects, from completely restoring one character's HP (but at the cost of putting that character to [[StandardStatusEffects sleep]]) to reducing the frequency with which the enemy party's turn comes up to restoring a character's HP equal to the amount of overkill damage they do. However, the normal, no-frills healing items are perfectly effective, and including a lot of extraneous situational cards is a good way to get your hand bogged down with useless junk in a critical situation. The most efficient deck setup for nearly the entire game is twenty to twenty-five basic attack cards, ten to twelve super moves, three to four healing items, and one revival item.

... And that's even ''if'' you're likely to run into any monsters (or perhaps [[EverythingTryingToKillYou terrain effects]]) at this point in time that will still [[UniversalPoison poison]] you.

This raises the question: Do you keep one or more of these items in your inventory in case that unlikely situation actually pops up? Or do you trash them to [[InventoryManagementPuzzle make room for]] that much more useful item that heals 500 HP instead? (The answer, of course, is "it depends on [[InventoryManagementPuzzle how limited your inventory slots are]].")

* In the PC version of ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'', there are plenty of times a specific card combo would be extremely useful... if you were to get the combo cards within the same few turns. And as the effects of the cards individually are minimal or dangerous, it's a toss-up: powerful individual cards, or combos that may never happen?

** In ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil5'', every weapon (barring grenades and mines, but including the Rocket Launcher) can unlock infinite ammo. And because of the chapter system, all you really have to do to get this is [[LevelGrinding grind]] [[BestLevelEver your favorite level]] [[LevelGrinding for money and player score points]]. Oh, and [[NewGamePlus beat the game]].

** It subverts it with the KO status effect, though. Reviving items have a 100% chance of resurrecting a party member. The basic resurrecting spell, Zing, has a consistent chance of failing. Its 100% accurate version, Kazing, can usually only be learned by a character class that [[SquishyWizard sacrifices a lot of combat effectiveness]] for that. So even if you actually have a party member able to cast Kazing, you'll end up stocking a couple Yggdrasil Leaves on everyone else for those boss battles where every turn counts.

* Averted in ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarIII'': the "Anti" spell isn't 100% effective, leaving a choice between a renewable (but not guaranteed) cure or a limited-availability, 100% effective cure.

** Inverted in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyI''. For the price of learning the PURE spell, you can buy 53 Pure potions, which is more than you're likely to ever need. The situation is similar for Soft potions and the SOFT spell, plus the spell charges are better spent on EXIT or [=INV2=].
*** Played straight in the GBA and PSP remakes, which change the magic charge system to a magic point system, and the Antidote and Anti-Stone spells are comically cheap in terms of MP cost.
** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyII'', the Esuna spell cures all permanent status effects. However, ailments other than poison and blind require higher levels of Esuna to cure, and in battle there's a chance of failure depending on Esuna's level and the user's Spirit stat. Items will always work in battle, and averts the need to grind up Esuna.
** Avoided in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'', where casting spells takes time, leaves your Priest vulnerable while casting, and is not 100% effective. The "Item" skill works immediately and always works. It remains valuable throughout the game.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance'' not only has several spells or skills available to easily get rid of most effects (especially the Paladin skill Nurse, which affects the user and nearby targets, has no cost ''and'' heals some hitpoints), it also makes you choose between being able to use items at all or using the skills from another job instead. And many status effects fade after a few turns anyway. The sequel makes item a bit more useful with Rangers being able to reverse the effect and use them to harm enemies. Unfortunately, the status effect items aren't any more reliable than job alternatives which are often either free or can hit several targets, and may have a wider range and/or deal damage, too. However, there is one job (Alchemist) which gives you Item as a ''third'' slot, leaving you able to use that, your primary class abilities, and a secondary class.
** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'', it is possible to use GF abilities to refine various antidotes into either magic of a similar effect, or of the affliction they would normally cure. It is also possible for the GF Siren to learn an in-combat Action Ability called "Treatment," which completely cures all status effects on a party member.
*** Although the "Treatment" Ability falls even more neatly into this trope than regular antidotes. [[LimitedMoveArsenal You can only equip three Action Abilities]] (not counting "Fight", which is permanent) and equipping "Treatment" means you've spent a slot that could be used for something else.
** Inverted in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII''. There is an accessory you can get a little into the game which allows curative items to inflict the status they cure, with 100% accuracy (unless the enemy is immune to that effect). [[note]]Try equipping this item and using a Remedy on your enemies after you've acquired all three Remedy Lore licenses...[[/note]] Predictably, this makes the spells which actually ''cause'' these effects (often with less accuracy) as their primary purpose much less useful.
*** The main benefit of using healing items over spells in FFXII is that their action bar charges ''waaaaay'' faster.
** Potions in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' heal 150 HP, or 5% of your Max HP(thus only increasing in power at 3000+HP, which you won't get until the very end of the game). There's an accessory that slightly increases that but ultimately potions lose their usefulness shortly into the game when the Medic paradigm becomes available.
*** Items that cure status effects, on the other hand, avert this. While they can only be used by the player, they're very cheap, can be used without a Medic in the party, and don't use up any of the party leader's ATB gauge. Even a Dazed character (who normally cannot act at all) can use a Foul Liquid on themselves to cure Daze.
*** The sequel, XIII-2, especially averts this with regards to Phoenix Downs. Now they grant Protect and Shell in addiction to reviving the character, something Raise won't do. There's also a new item named Phoenix ''Blood'', which revives and grants ''Haste'', and the only other ways to get that status effect is to either get a pre-emptive strike on an enemy or use accessories that grant it when you're low on HP.
*** In ''VideoGame/LightningReturnsFinalFantasyXIII'', abilities that cure status effects are extremely rare, and thus items are the main means of curing status effects.
** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'', you can use items to customize your armor. 99 Echo Screens, for example, will let you customize one piece of armor to protect against Silence or one weapon to inflict silence on enemies. However, rarer items produce better effects; 99 Echo Screens gives you Silence Touch, which silences enemies sometimes, while a sufficient number of Silence Grenades gives you Silence Strike, which almost always causes silence. So they're useful for something besides the single use, which may either be Square admitting to this trope or just weaseling out of it.
*** And then there's the CTB system where the next few turns can shift slightly depending on what action you use. Most of the time, items could give your character an extra turn after using the said item, making item use somewhat useful.
*** A set of rare items is supposed to be used for weapon/armor customization, but the abilities they give are kind of lame. However, [[NotTheIntendedUse you can use them for Rikku's best overdrives: Trio of 9999 and Hyper Mighty G.]] The former makes all blows and healing do a minimum of 9999 HP damage/healing, while the latter grants the entire party Protect, Shell, Haste, Regen and Auto Life. You WILL need Hyper Mighty G when fighting some of the [[BonusBoss Monster Arena creations.]]
*** An interesting variant occurs in VideoGame/FinalFantasyX where items that are already very useful can be made even better. Mega-Potions and Megalixirs restore all three of your onscreen party members when they're used in battle...but when they're used in the menu screen, they heal ''all seven'' of your characters.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' has various types of potions, ethers, and status curing potions which are incredibly handy for new players/players using a new class, but the items get outclassed very quickly; healers will have spells that not only restores HP in amounts far beyond what potions can heal, but they also get a spell that removes nasty status effects from a player. Granted, potions are instant use (with no class restrictions), but they have lengthy cool downs to prevent them from being spammed, which limits their overall usefulness. For example, an Elixir, which restores a few hundred HP and MP at once, requires the user to wait several minutes before they can use another or any other similar item. Spell casting is only limited by cast time and the user's remaining MP. Even physical classes on their own have limited self-healing abilities (such as Second Wind) that they can use instead. Gold Needles are an exception since Petrification can only be cured with the use of a Gold Needle (Esuna/Leeches doesn't cure it, despite the spells being able to cure everything else).
*** Many status effects only last for a short amount of time anyway (unlike the older games) and those that are critical to manage in boss fights usually can't be cured at all except for specific elements of the boss arena itself (such as fruits or specific areas).
*** Phoenix Downs also suffer from this, unusually for the series. They are rare and you can only carry one at once, but they can also only be used out of combat, which is rarely useful. At best, it skips the waiting period after changing to a different class so you can cast Raise.

* Averted (mostly) in the ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' series, in particular ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIIINocturne''. Very few demons tend to learn even one status-healing spell and sometimes a limit on the number of skills a demon/persona can have, eating slots that could be saved for more important things, so such items can be quite valuable. Especially since having even a generally mild status effect like poison can mean death if caught without a status healing item.
* Avoided somewhat, and unintentionally, in ''VideoGame/InfiniteUndiscovery'', where having a steady supply of minor Antidote-type items stops the [[ArtificialStupidity dumb AI allies]] from using the far more valuable Cure-All items on trivial statuses. They seem to do this even if they have ''a spell to fix the statuses in question''.
** It's better to forbid them to use the valuable items altogether. The only items they really need allowed are revival items for the times when the PlayerCharacter gets OnlyMostlyDead.
* Averted with ''[[VideoGame/WildArms1 Wild ARMs: Alter Code F]]''. You can't use spells outside of battle, so if combat ends before you heal people, you're stuck using healing items.

** Averted with the anti-anti-antidote, though, since there aren't any spells to remove poison that can be used during combat, and in many cases you'll want to remove the poison before the combat ends.
* Averted in the ''VideoGame/TalesSeries''. Since combat in the Tales games takes place in real time, magic takes several seconds to use, while items take effect instantly. Generally speaking, when you want your party members cured, you want them cured ''now''. The best strategy is therefore to use items in battle, and spells outside it when casting time doesn't matter, so that you can keep those items for when you really need them.
** Grade complicates this, though. Using items to heal yourself in battle can reduce the amount of grade you get, but letting the battle finish while someone is poisoned is bad for your grade too.
* Similarly averted in ''VideoGame/SeikenDensetsu3''. Not only are items used instantly, they can also compensate if your party is missing an important spell.
** Until you realize that the infinite-use Chibikko Hammer can apply and remove the Mini status, and that [[GoodBadBugs you can only have one major status ailment at a time]], at which point those status-restoring herbs look a lot less useful...
* Franchise/KingdomHearts:
** Played straight in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI''. The Cure spell can be cast literally dozens of times without having to refuel your magic points, so all your health-healing Potions are pretty much worthless.
** Averted in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'', however. Now, a single cast of the Cure spell takes every magic point you have, making Potions much more valuable.
** Also averted in the side-story ''358/2 Days''. All magic, Cure included, basically function exactly like items, so neither reigns supreme. The game does introduce status effects, though, which can ''only'' be healed by items. It should be noted that the uses of magic can be multiplied, whereas the uses of items cannot, so magic is still more plentiful than items.
** Averted again in ''Birth by Sleep'' and ''Dream Drop Distance''. Both games make use of the Command Deck for abilities and items, not unlike an ATB bar but just for abilities. Cure Spells and the like require recharge, however Potions and other Items require no recharge. Not only do you not have to worry about not having a Cure Spell available in the middle of a hectic boss fight (unless you simply run out of Potions) you can make use of more Command Deck slots, rather than using extra slots for extra Cure Spells (you get 5 Potions per slot). Also mighty handy during a certain boss fight in ''Birth by Sleep''. [[spoiler: The Secret Boss Fight, Vanitas Sentiment, will COPY any Cure Spell you throw out. So if you decide to lay down a Curaga to heal up, Vanitas will just copy it and heal himself. However he'll do no such thing when it comes to Items. They're pretty much your only way to survive that fight.]]
* In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'', when a character gets knocked out, he or she wakes up with an injury that penalizes a random stat until cured with a rare Injury Kit, if you've found or made one recently...or for free with Cleansing Aura at will. The Aura user can't heal her own injuries, however.

* Avoided in ''VideoGame/ResonanceOfFate'', where the ONLY way to cure poison is to use an item or wait it out, and poison in this game is incredibly dangerous. In fact, most of the time the antidote is useless because by the time you're able to cure yourself with it, it's already done a tremendous amount of non-regenerating health. The best option is really to never let yourself get hit by poison attacks.
* Avoided in the first four {{VideoGame/DotHackR1Games}}. There are exactly ''two'' healing items, each healing approximately 6 out of 12 status ailments that can be inflicted to you. Also, higher level dungeons start having enemies that do cast those ailments to you so not bringing any is actually foolish (and suicidal). This game also notably averts UselessUsefulSpell with regards to status ailments, but that's for another trope entry.

* ''VideoGame/ParasiteEve'' averts the trope. You have one ability that removes poison and another that can remove everything, but costs a bit of parasite energy to use (using too much parasite energy in battle greatly reduces its recharge rate). Items that cure status ailments are plentiful to find and they also have a secondary use; using a curative item while you are healthy will grant you immunity to that status effect once. The sequel uses the same system for items as well.
* Inverted in ''VideoGame/SkiesOfArcadia'', where somewhere around the first dungeon (or earlier if you get lucky with random drops) you will gain access to a skill that protects your entire party from magic for a turn that is inexpensive enough to be used ''every'' turn. It also blocks your own magic, but items work just fine. Furthermore, the game's battle system uses a party-wide resource bar for special attacks and spells, but items do not consume this bar, so you're indirectly increasing your damage by using items instead of spells. Finally, [[MoneyForNothing the game throws money at you]], especially during the later half, and healing items are always inexpensive.

* ''VideoGame/FantasyLife'' inverts it. Healing magic exists, but it takes some time to charge up and makes you vulnerable. If you're an Alchemist or Cook, Food or Healing Potions are relatively easy to make, making Earth Magic pretty useless.

* Zig-Zagged in ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarOnline''. Antidotes are more or less useless, since poison deals little damage, is generally easy to avoid, and all characters either gain access to a tech that heals it at Tech Level 1 almost immediately, or are just flat-out immune to poison. However, Antiparalysis and Sol Atomizers can be a bit more useful, as they can heal Paralysis and, in the case of the latter, Shock - two status effects which can be crippling and which cannot otherwise be self-healed. However, high level characters often get access to Cure/Status armour slots, which render that character immune to certain status effects.

* This trope is [[ExaggeratedTrope exaggerated]] in ''Videogame/DarkestDungeon'' because of its InventoryManagementPuzzle nature. Choosing which mundane items to stock before each dungeon crawl, and more to the point how much, involves some tricky strategy. While each foray has its own objective, you won't progress effectively if you don't also make it a top priority to come back with the most valuable collection of cash and VendorTrash that you can, but your inventory space is ''very limited''. Some of the supplies share their basic uses (e.g., bandages to stop bleeding) with character abilities, so they're optional in that sense. Others, like food, indirectly determine when you'll be forced to turn back, so they're optional in a different sense. However, this is complicated by the fact that many of the loot sources within the dungeons will yield better (or safer, or any at all) loot only if you've got the right one of these items to "unlock" it. For example, medicinal herbs will remove a character's poison, but they'll also clean up a rotting corpse so that you can loot it without getting a case of the nasties. The icing on the cake is that unused supplies cannot be saved up for the next crawl, but are always sold back at a loss upon returning to town; and that once you open a container, any loot you don't put in your bag immediately is lost forever. The hard choices at the outset are not so much about space as money; the economy of the game is tuned so tight that you won't want to spend cash on something you'll later discard for the space. But the choices get harder inside the dungeon as your bag fills up with loot. You will soon find yourself forced to choose between leaving behind gems or throwing away holy water that might be needed to cleanse a shrine in the next room. Because making these choices well is such an essential skill, it's almost as much a StrategyGame as an [=RPG=].

* You find a dungeon or cave where [[AntiMagic magic isn't allowed or doesn't work]].

* In ''{{Morrowind}}'', curing diseases can be done via spells, scrolls, potions or at shrines. At a certain point in the main quest, you become immune to diseases, rendering these potions and scrolls vendor trash (and earlier if you pick up the rather cheap spell). Similar for the four types of teleportation spells; they can be used via enchanted items or scrolls, but in the long run it's cheaper and more convenient to just buy the spells and sell any such items you pick up.
** The same cure disease spell is available in ''VideoGame/{{Oblivion}}'' as an alternative to potions.
** Likewise in ''{{Skyrim}}'', where an easy enchantment renders all those Cure Disease potions useless. You can also become either a werewolf or a vampire, both of which grant extra awesome powers and full disease immunity.

* [[GiveMeYourInventoryItem Some lazy]] {{NPC}} [[GiveMeYourInventoryItem can't run to the store and get one himself.]]

*** {{Justified| Trope}} in that these are {{Bragging Rights Reward}}s and the like.

But wait, you say, they aren't ''completely'' pointless! And you're right... there are exactly six situations where they still come in handy:

* In some systems, spells require more time to execute than using items; if a character is dying of poison, this could make the difference between keeping them alive and having to ''resurrect'' them later. This also applies to the "tough out" strategy - if the poison is likely to kill a character in two turns, the fact that it will go away in three is irrelevant.

* [[GiveMeYourInventoryItem Some lazy]] {{NPC}} [[GiveMeYourInventoryItem can't run to the store and get one himself]].
* [[ElementalCrafting They allow you to make bulks of much more efficient healing items]]

This raises the question: Do you keep one or more of these items in your inventory in case that unlikely situation actually pops up? Or do you trash them to [[InventoryManagementPuzzle make room for]] that much more useful item that heals 500 HP instead? (The answer, of course, is "it depends on how limited your inventory slots are.")

This is the Antidote Effect. It happens when items (or spells, for that matter) have a very specific, strategic use that doesn't often come up in normal situations. It is related to the items TooAwesomeToUse, players will be tempted to keep them in their inventory but will never use them because -- surprise! -- that specific situation never arose.

* In the PC version of ''MagicTheGathering'', there are plenty of times a specific card combo would be extremely useful... if you were to get the combo cards within the same few turns. And as the effects of the cards individually are minimal or dangerous, it's a toss-up: powerful individual cards, or combos that may never happen?

* The ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh'' card game is a bizarre example of this; there are several cards made specifically to counter a single solitary card, most of which are either banned (which would make said counters useless items) or limited to 1, limiting their usefulness to near-0 in light of the myriad of other, better options for countering them. On the other hand, many {{Munchkin}} decks are hardly ever found without 3 copies of the card "Gravekeeper's Spy" or "Toon Table of Contents", two searcher cards that, in their own archetype deck, would work well. Why they fit into this category, however, is that most of the time, they're splashed into decks not of their archetype ''solely to search for their own copies and thin the deck''. So, on the one hand, we've got a bunch of highly situational cards that no one uses because of this trope, and on the other, we've got another bunch of cards that, while immensely useful in their own decks, are used in a highly situational way because of this trope. ''Yu-Gi-Oh'' players are weird.
** It's basically the cyclical way Yu-Gi-Oh...and most card games work, especially in correlation to the Meta. Two decks exemplify this trope well. Dark Worlds and Burn variants (usually Chain Burn). Both decks get erratic amounts of top placement in major tournaments, while in others they're nowhere to be seen. Why? Well in normal circumstances both decks are very hard and annoying to defeat. Dark Worlds are quick, mess with your hand, can abuse Skill Drain, have a recurring 2700(3000 under their Field Spell) beater and are just generally all around annoying. Chain Burn stops you from ever getting any attacks off with a copious amount of battle stoppers, and then just sit behind them while they lay waste to your Life Points with a barrage of burn card chains, while also refilling their hand with Accumulated Fortune, and Jar of Greed/Legacy of Yata-Garasu. The problem with both of these decks is that they're HIGHLY susceptible to the side deck to the point that when properly sided against, they're dead on arrival. So when either deck scores a top placement, everyone will side against them. When that happens, they don't top again until people stop siding due to not seeing the decks again. Tl;dr, the AntidoteEffect allows Dark Worlds and Chain Burn to sneak top placement at majors at least once a format.

* ''VideoGame/Battlefield2142'' features unlockable weapons--and very limited slots to put them into. Several unlocks are useful in extremly specific situations but are far outclassed by other, more generally useful unlocks.

** It subverts it with the KO status effect, though. Reviving items have a 100% chance of resurrecting a party member. The basic resurrecting spell, Zing, has a consistent chance of failing. Its 100% accurate version, Kazing, can usually only be learned by a character class that [[SquishyWizard sacrifices a lot of combat effectiveness]] for that. So even if you actually have a party member able to cast Kazing you'll end up stocking a couple Yggdrasil Leaves on everyone else for those boss battles where every turn counts.

** Similarly, in ''VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire'' a set of volcanic glass flutes are available to cure certain status effects at will; Blue for sleep, Red for infatuation, and Yellow for confusion. The latter two are especially useful as the only means to cure those ailments (short of switching out or waiting) are single-use hold items that must be set up before the fight.

** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' it is possible to use GF abilities to refine various antidotes into either magic of a similar effect, or of the affliction they would normally cure. It is also possible for the GF Siren to learn an in-combat Action Ability called "Treatment," which completely cures all status effects on a party member.
*** Although the "Treatment" Ability falls even more neatly into this trope than regular antidotes. You can only equip three Action Abilities (not counting "Fight" which is permanent) and equipping "Treatment" means you've spent a slot that could be used for something else.