History Main / EssenceDrop

* 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]] (either color), you enter a berserk Demon Morph mode.
* 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
* 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.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Blood}}'', dead enemies sometimes drop "life essences" which restore your health.

* 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).

* ''Franchise/{{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]].

* With ''[[Videogame/{{Tron20}} Tron 2.0]]'' the de-rezzed remnants of Programs Jet kills can be harvested to refresh some of his health and energy. Sometimes, the remains also contain the Programs' permissions and subroutines.

[[quoteright:250:[[VideoGame/GodOfWar https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gow_orbes_7703.jpg]]]]

!! Examples:

* 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 ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' games.

'''Non-video game example:'''
* ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'': Some witches drop grief seeds after their defeat, which cleanses a magical girl's soul gem and refills her magic.

[[folder: Action Adventure: ]]

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[[folder: Fighting Game: ]]

[[folder: First Person Shooter: ]]

[[folder: Hack And Slash: ]]

[[folder: MMORPG: ]]

[[folder: Platform Game: ]]

[[folder: Role Playing Game: ]]

[[folder: Turn Based Strategy: ]]

[[folder: Web Games: ]]

[[folder: Wide Open Sandbox: ]]

[[folder: Miscellaneous Games: ]]

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[[quoteright:250:[[VideoGame/GodOfWar https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gow_orbes_7703.jpg]]]]

In some {{Action Game}}s, when you kill enemies, they release magical spheres or glowey energy of some sort that affect your character's status in various ways when you collect them -- they may give ExperiencePoints, [[HitPoints health]], or {{Mana}} refills, and so on.

Whatever ''exactly'' these things are is rarely addressed; sometimes they're [[JustifiedTrope explained]] as the opponent's soul or blood or a more vague "essence". The exact number, types and effects of these things will vary with each game, and may or may not also be found stored in [[RewardingVandalism inanimate objects]].

May be a RandomDrop. See also MoneySpider and OrganDrops. Compare LiquidAssets.

!! Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[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 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.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Action ]]

* ''VideoGame/TheMatrixPathOfNeo'' has random enemies that drop glowing yellow [[BulletTime focus]] symbols and green health symbols.

[[/folder]]

[[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/DemonsSouls'' and ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' do this with apparently dismantled pieces of souls being [[EnergyEconomy currency]], whole souls of very strong enemies being used for various purposes (or broken apart for more regular souls), and in the latter game you can occasionally find piece of "humanity" that let you regain human form. Oddly, dropped items are also represented as bundles of glowing material, even when it's perfectly solid objects.
** ''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]]

[[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.
* ''VideoGame/NarutoShippudenUltimateNinjaStorm2'' allows you to absorb blue spheres that fall from your opponent after a strong hit, to refill your Chakra gage more quickly.
* 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]]

[[folder: First Person Shooter: ]]

* 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]] (either color), you enter a berserk Demon Morph mode.
* 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
* With ''[[Videogame/{{Tron20}} Tron 2.0]]'' the de-rezzed remnants of Programs Jet kills can be harvested to refresh some of his health and energy. Sometimes, the remains also contain the Programs' permissions and subroutines.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Blood}}'', dead enemies sometimes drop "life essences" which restore your health.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Hack And Slash: ]]

* ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'' is maybe the TropeCodifier for modern action games, with the crystallised demon blood that enemies ([[RewardingVandalism and chairs]]) drop: red orbs are the currency, green orbs heal you and white orbs refill your [[SuperMode Devil Trigger]] gauge.
* 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.
* ''Franchise/{{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.
* ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'' features this: Dead enemies occasionally drop "life orbs", which allow to regain some health. This is meant to do away with previous installments' (and much of the genre's in general) need to constantly swig [[HealingPotion health potions]], making said potions more of an emergency healing option (which now have a cooldown attached).
* 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.
* ''VideoGame/FairyBloomFreesia'''s enemies drop glowing white orbs of Mana, which is used to buy skills.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: MMORPG: ]]

* 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]]

[[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/{{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 ''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 ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' games.
* ''Videogame/JakAndDaxter'':
** 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.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Role Playing Game: ]]

* 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]]

[[folder: Turn Based Strategy: ]]

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'' have characters that are not revived in 3 turns become KilledOffForReal. When someone dies, their body and soul become crystals (human enemies may drop some of their gear instead of becoming a crystal). Anyone that picks up a crystal can either inherit abilities (if the unit was human) or have their HP and MP restored.

[[/folder]]

[[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]]

[[folder: Wide Open Sandbox: ]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}'' does this for most enemies. Some are more rewarding towards vitality, some towards Evolution Points. The sequel does away with this mechanic entirely.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Miscellaneous Games: ]]

* In ''VideoGame/AttackOfTheMutantPenguins'', penguins will drop a bunch of power orbs if you hit them ''without'' killing them. Collecting these orbs before swinging your weapon again will power it up to be lethal to penguins.

'''Non-video game example:'''
* ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'': Some witches drop grief seeds after their defeat, which cleanses a magical girl's soul gem and refills her magic.
[[/folder]]

----

* In ''[[VideoGame/TatsunokoVsCapcom Tatsunoko vs. Capcom]]'', Soki from ''Videogame/{{Onimusha}}: Dawn of Dreams'' 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.

* ''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]].

In some {{Action Game}}s, when you kill enemies, they release magical spheres of glowey energy some sort that affect your character's status in various ways when you collect them -- they may give ExperiencePoints, [[HitPoints health]], or {{Mana}} refills, and so on.

* ''VideoGame/FairyBloomFreesia'''s] enemies drop glowing white orbs of Mana, which is used to buy skills.

* [FairyBloomFreesia's] enemies drop glowing white orbs of Mana, which is used to buy skills.

[[AC:ActionAdventure:]]

[[AC:Action]]
* ''VideoGame/TheMatrixPathOfNeo'' has random enemies that drop glowing yellow [[BulletTime focus]] symbols and green health symbols.

[[AC:ActionRPG:]]

[[AC:FightingGame:]]

[[AC:FirstPersonShooter:]]

[[AC:HackAndSlash:]]

[[AC:{{MMORPG}}:]]

[[AC:PlatformGame:]]

[[AC:RolePlayingGame:]]

[[AC:TurnBasedStrategy:]]

[[AC:WebGames:]]

[[AC:WideOpenSandbox:]]

[[AC:MiscellaneousGames:]]

* ''NarutoShippudenUltimateNinjaStorm2'' allows you to absorb blue spheres that fall from your opponent after a strong hit, to refill your Chakra gage more quickly.

May be a RandomDrop. See also MoneySpider and OrganDrops.

* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': A Gem's body is merely a projection from their gemstone, just with mass. The gem is their true essence, and it's dropped when a gem's physical form is too badly damaged.

In some {{Action Game}}s, when you kill enemies, they will release magical spheres of some sort that affect your character's status in some way when you collect them -- they may give ExperiencePoints, [[HitPoints health]], or {{Mana}} refills, and so on.

Whatever ''exactly'' these things are is rarely addressed; sometimes it's [[HandWave handwaved]] as the opponent's soul/blood or a more vague "essence". The exact number, types and effects of these things will vary with each game, and may or may not also be found stored in [[RewardingVandalism inanimate objects]].

* In ''Videogame/MetroidFusion'', slain enemies drop X-Parasites (or rather [[ItWasHisTrueForm 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.

In some {{Action Game}}s, after you kill enemies, they will release magical spheres of some sort that affect your character's status in some way when you collect them -- they may represent ExperiencePoints, [[HitPoints health]], or {{Mana}} refills, and so on.

Whatever ''exactly'' these things are is rarely addressed; sometimes it's [[HandWave handwaved]] as the opponent's soul/blood or a more vague "essence". The exact number, types and effects of these things will vary with each game, and may or may not also be found stored in [[RewardingVandalism inanimate objects]]. You can expect to get this when you go through a LootCommand on monster enemies.

* In ''Videogame/MetroidFusion'', slain enemies drop X-Parasites. Samus is [[HalfHumanHybrid half-Metroid]] in this game so 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.

* In the night stages of ''VideoGame/SonicUnleashed'', any defeated enemies give out pale bluish floating bits of light. Sonic could 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/SpyroTheDragon'': At first, your 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).

* 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 [[ForMassiveDamage 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 the modern ''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 [[ForMassiveDamage 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.