History Main / EssenceDrop

* ''VideoGame/SonicUnleashed'': In the night stages, any defeated enemies give out pale bluish floating bits of light. Sonic can collect these to fill up his [[TitleDrop Unleashed]] gauge, which when activated by the player, temporarily gives Sonic increased attack power and invincibility to some things. In the Usefulnotes/{{Wii}} and Usefulnotes/PlayStation2 versions, enemies also give out red floating bits of light which represents experience points.

* ''VideoGame/{{Flink}}'': Defeating enemies would release magical energy that would home in on Flink and be absorbed into his LifeMeter. Magical energy would also be released if Flink took a hit, allowing for damage recovery similar to rings in ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' games.

* ''VideoGame/{{Blood}}'': Dead enemies sometimes drop "life essences" which restore your health.

* ''VideoGame/SpyroTheDragon'': At first, enemies drop Gems. But, if you replay a level, they'll drop silver orbs that you can collect to get yourself a one-up (silver dragon statue). Also Sparx, when he burns edibles, will get essences to pick up.

* ''Videogame/JakAndDaxter'':

** ''Videogame/JakIIRenegade'': All enemies drop Dark Eco instead, enabling Jak to turn Dark if he's collected enough.
** ''Videogame/Jak3Wastelander'': Enemies start dropping Light Eco as well, which Jak can use toward his Light abilities.

* ''Videogame/SpyroTheDragon'': At first, enemies drop Gems. But, if you replay a level, they'll drop silver orbs that you can collect to get yourself a one-up (silver dragon statue). Also Sparx, when he burns edibles, will get essences to pick up.

[[folder: MMORPG ]]

[[folder: MOBA]]

[[folder: Action Adventure ]]

* In ''Videogame/AmericanMcGeesAlice'', dead enemies disappear after killed to leave for a while some "metaessence", that comes in different shapes (spheres, hearts...) but allow to regain health ''and'' mana.
* Used to some extent in the ''[[Videogame/LegacyOfKain Soul Reaver]]'' series: Raziel has to suck up dead enemies' souls to refill his health. In ''2'' and ''Defiance'', the souls' shape and colour differs depending on if you kill a human or a demon, although the effect is the same.
* The Amana Volo spheres in ''Videogame/{{BIONICLE}}'' replenish your stamina meter, which lets you use some of the special items you can find, like Onewa's rock-crushing hammer.
* Enemies in ''Videogame/BunnyMustDie'' will drop Time Crystals when Bunny kills them, refilling her time meter.
* In ''Videogame/MetroidFusion'', slain enemies [[ThisWasHisTrueForm turn back into]] X Parasites. Since Samus is [[HalfHumanHybrid part Metroid]] in this game, she can feed on X Parasites the way Metroids can. Yellow X are energy, green X are ammo, red restores both, so on. Boss level X Parasites also restore back one of Samus' weapons or abilities.
** ''Videogame/MetroidPrime'' {{Hand Wave}}s the health/ammo drops as being the LifeEnergy of defeated enemies mingling with the energy of Samus's attacks and crystallising.

[[folder: Action ]]

* In the ''VideoGame/BubbleTanks'' series, all enemies are made of bubbles and drop bubbles on death, which your bubble tank picks up as experience points.

[[folder: Action RPG ]]

* Games in the ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' series have several types of these spheres, depending on the game.
** Green Orbs are HP
** Blue Bubbles are MP
** Yellow Orbs are Munny
** Red Orbs are Moogle Points (In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories'')
** Orange Orbs are for the Drive Gauge (In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'')
** Blue, Star-like Orbs refill D-Link (In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'')
** Purpley pink droplets are Drop Points (In ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance'')
* ''VideoGame/OttoMatic'' has virtually everything you kill drop "atoms" in different colors... red restores health, green powers your "jump jet" and blue is "rocket fuel" needed to finish the level.
** Somewhat more ickily, there are Slimes on planet Snoth that you can freeze with an Freeze Gun and then shatter by punching them. For a while thereafter they become a mass of little balls that you can pick up to gain one of the things mentioned above, depending on the color of the Slime. Of course, if you don't pick up all of them, any that remain turn into [[DemonicSpiders more Slimes]].
* In ''VideoGame/OdinSphere'' enemies release floating "Phozons" when defeated, which are said to be the remnants of their life force. It is used mainly to level-grind your weapons. [[spoiler:Unusually, the constant absorption of phozons after every battle becomes plot-critical in the good ending: after the BigBad has used the Cauldron to drain ''all'' phozon energy in order to kill the planet, Velvet hits on the idea of breaking down the psypher weapons used by herself and three of the other protagonists, releasing all of their absorbed phozons back into the world to restore life to it.]]

** ''VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}}'' continues the trend with Blood Echoes substituting for the currency-like "liquid" souls, and Coldblood for "solid" souls. The game also includes Insight, which is a rough equivalent of Humanity and can be extracted from the skulls of madmen [[spoiler: and umbilical cords, of all things.]]
* In ''VideoGame/LufiaCurseOfTheSinistrals'', beating on [[SurplusDamageBonus already-dead enemies]] will cause them to drop experience orbs (along with gold coins) for additional gain. They'll also occasionally drop soul shards, which Jessy explains are used to create magical weapons and armour (and who will take your soul shards in exchange for rare and unique equipment).

[[folder: Fighting Game ]]

* In ''[[VideoGame/TatsunokoVsCapcom Tatsunoko vs. Capcom]]'', Soki from ''VideoGame/OnimushaDawnOfDreams'' assumes his Black Oni form for his Level 3. During this time, his partner is unavailable and his hyper meter begins to dwindle. Attacking his opponent will cause multicolored soul orbs to pop out, which Soki needs to collect using the Partner button. The blue and yellow orbs respectively restore Soki's hyper meter and health, but the red orbs are the most important, as collecting seven or more of those orbs gives Soki access to his strongest Hyper, Oni Cutter.

* All-Star Power (AP) in ''VideoGame/PlaystationAllstarsBattleRoyale'' is made to look like a glowing orb of translucent white energy. It was inspired by ''God of War'''s red orbs.

[[folder: First Person Shooter ]]

* In ''{{VideoGame/Blood}}'', dead enemies sometimes drop "life essences" which restore your health.
* In ''VideoGame/Doom2016'', performing [[FinishingMove Glory Kills]] on heavily wounded demons yields guaranteed [[HealThyself health drops]], the occasional ammo pickup, and, with the right rune equipped, armor shards. Plus, killing one with the [[ChainsawGood chainsaw]] yields a smörgåsbord of ammunition.

* ''{{VideoGame/Exhumed}}'' has this in the console ports when you kill an enemy where red orbs give you health and blue orbs give you ammo.
* In ''{{VideoGame/Painkiller}}'', every enemy you kill drops a soul. Regular enemies drop green souls which heal one HP, while EliteMooks drop red souls which heal 6 HP. After collecting 66 souls of either color, you enter a berserk Demon Morph mode.
* With ''[[VideoGame/Tron20 Tron 2.0]]'' the de-rezzed remnants of Programs Jet kills (known as "core dumps") can be harvested to refresh some of his health and energy. Sometimes, the remains also contain the Programs' permissions and subroutines.

[[folder: Hack And Slash ]]

* In the modern ''VideoGame/NinjaGaiden'' games, dead enemies drop yellow orbs (currency), blue orbs (health) and red orbs (Ninpo gauge). Also, instead of using them to heal, you can absorb them to charge an [[LimitBreak ultimate technique]] instantly; that's actually a vital skill when facing multiple enemies in ''2''. ''Ninja Gaiden 3'' abandons this system completely for the sake of a greater immersion.
* In ''VideoGame/GodOfWar'', monsters drop red, green and blue orbs, for experience, health and magic respectively.
* ''VideoGame/TheForceUnleashed'' does this as well for points used to upgrade your force powers.
* ''VideoGame/DantesInferno'' is very similar to God of War in many ways; it uses colored "souls" to keep track of experience, health, and mana.
* ''VideoGame/{{Onimusha}}'' subverts this system: enemies drop soul spheres, but you have to ''stop and attract them to you manually'', which takes a bit of time and is very risky in the middle of a fight (the bigger the spheres are, the longer it takes). The game also adds a fourth type of ([[RareRandomDrop very rare]]) sphere, and collecting five of these allows you to transform into an [[SuperMode Onimusha]].
** Furthermore, killing enemies with [[OneHitKill Issen attacks]] will reward you with much more souls. You can also find or equip items that affect the soul types and number. Tenkai from the fourth game can also detonates said souls instead of absorbing them.

* While enemies in ''VideoGame/{{Bayonetta}}'' are mostly {{Money Spider}}s, sometimes they also drop small green, leaf-shaped or purple, butterfly-shaped things that refill a bit of health or magic.

* The monk class in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' has a chance, upon killing an enemy, to spawn a sphere that refills the player's health or chi when walked through.

[[folder: Platform Game ]]

* In the night stages of ''VideoGame/SonicUnleashed'', any defeated enemies give out pale bluish floating bits of light. Sonic can collect these to fill up his [[TitleDrop Unleashed]] gauge, which when activated by the player, temporarily gives Sonic increased attack power and invincibility to some things. In the Usefulnotes/{{Wii}} and Usefulnotes/PlayStation2 versions, enemies also give out red floating bits of light which represents experience points.
* The Nightmare Souls on ''VideoGame/MegaManX6'' can be considered something like experience points. After certain amounts are accumulated they increase by one the limit of special power-ups you can use.
* In ''Flink'', defeating enemies would release magical energy that would home in on Flink and be absorbed into his LifeMeter. Magical energy would also be released if Flink took a hit, allowing for damage recovery similar to rings in ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' games.

** In ''VideoGame/JakAndDaxterThePrecursorLegacy'' enemies drop green Eco on death, and collecting 50 green Eco restores a quarter of your health.
** In ''Videogame/JakIIRenegade'' all enemies drop Dark Eco instead, enabling Jak to turn Dark if he's collected enough.
** In ''Videogame/Jak3Wastelander'', enemies start dropping Light Eco as well, which Jak can use toward his Light abilities.
* ''Videogame/SpyroTheDragon'': At first, enemies drop Gems. But, if you replay a level, they'll drop silver orbs that you can collect to get yourself a one-up (silver dragon statue).
** Also Sparx, when he burns edibles, will get essences to pick up.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Iji}}'', dead enemies drop piles of [[{{Nanomachines}} nanites]], which are basically [[ExperiencePoints XP]], and appear as glowing blue spheres floating a few inches off the ground.
* ''VideoGame/AdventureStory'': Monsters drop bubbles of {{Mana}} and HitPoints to recover with.

[[folder: Role Playing Game ]]

[[folder: Turn Based Strategy ]]

[[folder: Web Games ]]

* ''[=Indestruc2Tank=]'' Enhanced Game mode. When you destroy an enemy vehicle, little globes of white light come out of it and drift towards your tank. When they touch your tank, your Boom Bar is increased.

[[folder: Wide Open Sandbox ]]

* Enemies in ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' drop flashing green-and-yellow experience orbs upon death. These orbs also appear when you breed animals and collect ores (either mining or smelting, depending on the type).

[[folder: Miscellaneous Games ]]

[[folder:Non-video game example]]

* In ''Videogame/MetroidFusion'', slain enemies drop X-Parasites (or rather [[ThisWasHisTrueForm turn back into]] X-Parasites). Since Samus is [[HalfHumanHybrid half-Metroid]] in this game she can feed on X-parasites like them: yellow is energy, green is ammo, red restores both, so on. And for boss/midboss level parasites, you also get back one of your weapons/abilities.
** ''Videogame/MetroidPrime'' {{Hand Wave}}s the health/ammo drops of other games in the series as the LifeEnergy of defeated enemies mingling with the energy of Samus's attacks and crystallising.

* In ''VideoGame/Doom2016'', performing [[FinishingMove Glory Kills]] on heavily wounded demons yields guaranteed health drops, the occasional ammo pickup, and, with the right rune equipped, armor shards. Plus, killing one with the [[ChainsawGood chainsaw]] yields a smörgåsbord of ammunition.

* The Nightmare Souls on ''VideoGame/{{Mega Man X}}6'' can be considered something like experience points. After certain amounts are accumulated they increase by one the limit of special power-ups you can use.

* In ''{{VideoGame/Painkiller}}'', every enemy you kill drops a soul. Regular enemies drop green souls which heal one HP, while EliteMooks drop red souls which heal 6 HP. After [[OneHundredCoins collecting 66 souls]] of either color, you enter a berserk Demon Morph mode.

* In ''VideoGame/Blood'', dead enemies sometimes drop "life essences" which restore your health.

* ''VideoGame/Exhumed'' has this in the console ports when you kill an enemy where red orbs give you health and blue orbs give you ammo.
* In ''VideoGame/Painkiller'', every enemy you kill drops a soul. Regular enemies drop green souls which heal one HP, while EliteMooks drop red souls which heal 6 HP. After [[OneHundredCoins collecting 66 souls]] of either color, you enter a berserk Demon Morph mode.