History Main / JustAddWater

* In most of the ''VideoGame/VirtualVillagers'' series, villagers can produce potions or stews by mixing water and herbs (and in some cases foodstuffs) and cooking on the fire. Results of drinking these concoctions can vary.

* In ''ZooWorld'' you can build a rose garden simply by gathering five roses of each of the primary colors. To level it up you need to gather additional roses of additional colors, but no sweat - roses of secondary colors can be created by combining primary colors.

* Averted in ''EVEOnline''. Even the simplest manufactured items are just that - manufactured. You get the minerals (from mining, the player market, refining etc.), a blueprint and bake them in a production slot. This may take anywhere from a second to a few weeks, in the case of supercapital ships. Also, the capital ships and T2/T3 ships need more components - which have to be built from minerals, reverse engineered from ancient relics (well... ancient AI spaceships you destroyed and tried to analyze a bit) and some parts can only be bought on the NPC market (which works very differently from most MMOs - while the supply itself is infinite, it comes in a steady pace. And the more there is in a station, the cheaper it is. And every station in the galaxy is covered by some PC merchant who buys them when the price is right...). Not to mention the research you have to do upfront to even be able to produce it (in the case of T2/T3 ships) and in some cases to actually make profit (production time and efficiency research). And did I mention the skills you need to build the advanced ships? And you can't rush it either - they train in real-time, just like all the other skills in the game. All in all, if you start a carrier as an industrialist, you still may never ever get to make a single mothership. And a single mothership sold can easily yield you enough in-game money to play the game for ten years without having to pay the subscription.

** Less excusable is Pokéblock creation in ''VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire'', berries+centrifuge=... a fruit cube?

* VideoGame/TeamFortress2 has a large crafting system where one can take unwanted items and smelt them into scrap metal, which then gets combined into reclaimed and refined metal, which then can be made into [[NiceHat the game's ultimate goal]]. Specific recipes also exist to craft specific other items and weapons without having to wait for the random drop system to give them to you.

* VideoGame/DeadRising2 lets you make all sorts of incredibly destructive weapons using random things found around the game world and liberal use of a seemingly infinite amount of duct tape. You only need two items, yet the result features more. For example, a Paddlesaw is made from a canoe paddle and a chainsaw, yet the final result has ''two'' chainsaws.

* Used literally in DragonAge, where the ingredients for a simple poison are... Venom extract and water.

* DeadRising2 let's you make all sorts of incredibly destructive weapons using random things found around the game world and liberal use of a seemingly infinite amount of duct tape. You only need two items, yet the result features more. For example, a Paddlesaw is made from a canoe paddle and a chainsaw, yet the final result has ''two'' chainsaws.

* On ''{{Neopets}}'', there is a cooking pot where you can combine up to three items to make things.

* ''{{Kirby}} 64'' plays straight though with ability-making: You can combine only two "elements" to make an ability.

* In ''StarOceanTheSecondStory'', there are only six ingredients (meat, seafood, eggs/dairy, fruit, vegetable, grain), but with just two of them, you can make anything. You can also cook items like shark fin soup or cheese pizza with one ingredient.

* Usually averted in ''FinalFantasyXI'': Most recipes, while maybe not including every last little spice, come across as fairly realistic in terms of ingredients. What isn't averted is justified, as crafting as [=PCs=] go about it is an essentially magical process.

* ''CrisisCore: FinalFantasyVII'''s Materia Fusion works this way. Slap together two Materia, perhaps some items if you have the right key item for it, and you have a new Materia! This is the only way to max out Zack's power. The sad thing is that with how little bonus you actually get out of normal leveling, and how damn powerful the mooks eventually get, you really need to spend some time with this.

* In the ''MegaManLegends'' games, Roll can build any number of weapons for Mega Man just by combining odd pieces of junk. Even books and toy guns!

* Averted in ''HarvestMoon: Friends of Mineral Town''. Not only can you use up to eight ingredients in cooking (not counting spices), but you also have to choose the right utensils to make the recipie! Luckily, most of them are fairly intuitive, except for the ultra-special recipies.

* Averted in ''TheElderScrolls:'' a basic potion can be made with just two ingredients and a mortar, but complex potions can be made with four ingredients, mortar, retort, alembic and calcinator.

** But in ''{{Oblivion}}'', once you get that 100 Alchemy (not that hard), all you technically need is ''one'' ingredient and a mortar. JustAddWater indeed.

** However it is a bit of a head-scratcher that almost every crafting profession requires copious amounts of odd ingredients, but '''none''' of the alchemy recipes require ''water'' to mix the herbs in. Add two dry herbs in a flask and poof! A drinkable solution.
*** Shush, they'll hear you.

* DeadRising2 let's you make all sorts of incredibly destructive weapons using random things found around the game world and liberal use of a seemingly infinite amount of duct tape.
** If you've ever watched TheRedGreenShow, this may be TruthInTelevision.
** However, you only need two items, yet the result features more. For example, a Paddlesaw is made from a canoe paddle and a chainsaw, yet the final result has ''two'' chainsaws.

** The Pasta Crafting is justified by the fact that you are a pasta specialized magic user.
** "Justified?" Dude, this is a game where you can make a superweapon by attaching a toilet plunger to an engine block, and a pair of Sweet Rims is a required part for all cars.
** Cottage cheese + anticheese = cottage. Whoa...
** You can combine two leaflets (i.e. pamphlets) to make a leaf. Which you can then combine with maple syrup to make a maple leaf.
** The Untinker can un-combine pairs of items with a screwdriver, even though items are combined using meat goo or plunger suction, not screws. An abridged dictionary disassembles into a regular dictionary...and a bridge. [[ItRunsOnNonsensoleum Don't try to make sense of any of this.]]

* DeadRising let's you make all sorts of incredibly destructive weapons using random things found around the game world and liberal use of a seemingly infinite amount of duct tape.

[[quoteright:350:[[AwkwardZombie http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/az-Alchembrie_6162.png]]]]

* Alchemy in ''OdinSphere'' involves adding something (usually a type of living plant) to a vial of numbered liquid to create a potion. There's also a variation for cooking in the Pooka village restaurants.

* Aversion: ''{{Fallout 3}}'' has Four Ingredient "[[http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Schematics Cooking]]".

* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'', a potion maker can make any of his wares from a single type of Chu jelly, though he needs several units for a full batch. Possibly justified as it he might be simply distilling or refining the jelly in some way. In ''TwilightPrincess'', you can drink the jelly straight for the same effects.

** But in ''{{Oblivion}}'', once you get that 100 Alchemy (not that hard), all you technically need is ''one'' ingredient and a mortar. {{Just Add Water}} indeed.

[[caption-width-right:350:Alchemy with ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsFourOblivion'']]

[[caption-width-right:350:Alchemy with ''[[TheElderScrollsFour Oblivion]]'']]

* In ''TheLegendOfZelda: TheWindWaker'', a potion maker can make any of his wares from a single type of Chu jelly, though he needs several units for a full batch. Possibly justified as it he might be simply distilling or refining the jelly in some way. In ''TwilightPrincess'', you can drink the jelly straight for the same effects.

In a video game with an ItemCrafting system, everything that can be created can be made by two items combined in a relatively simple fashion. No matter how complicated something is to make, sticking the right two pieces of VendorTrash into an oven will produce it. Need a {{BFG}}? Just glue a tiny hammer to a hollow tube, and you're ready to go! Forget your LoveInterest's birthday? Pop an egg and a bag of sugar (still in bag, mind you) into the oven, and you'll have a delicious and moist cake!

Occasionally, advanced items will require multiple iterations, but even in this case, every step in the process requires sticking two items together, and usually the intermediate steps produce items that are usable in their own right.

Similarly, chemists and potion makers can create any liquid or potion by mixing two liquids in kept test tubes. There may be a chance (depending on the game) of getting a small explosion instead, which can have any effect from simply [[AshFace coating the face with a harmless dark, dusty substance]], to [[BalefulPolymorph changing the potion maker into an animal]].

* In ''TheLegendOfZelda: TheWindWaker'', a potion maker can make any of his wares from a single type of Chu jelly, though he needs several units for a full batch. Possibly justified as it he might be simply distilling or refining the jelly in some way. In ''TwilightPrincess'', you can drink the jelly straight for the same effects.

* In a similar vein, the entirety of ''The Secret Island of Dr. Quandary'' is based around collecting various items (such as ABC gum) and mixing them all together in a giant magical cauldron so that you don't have to spend the rest of your life forced to solve math puzzles while trapped inside the body of a troll doll.

* In ''StarOceanTheSecondStory'', there are only six ingredients (meat, seafood, eggs/dairy, fruit, vegetable, grain), but with just two of them, you can make anything. You can also cook items like shark fin soup or cheese pizza with one ingredient.
* Alchemy in ''DragonQuestVIII''

* The ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' games. In fact, you don't even start ''out'' with the ability to cook with two items! Just one.
** In the original, Tayce T. can only cook with one ingredient at a time, but after you gain a Cookbook (a very likely possibility in the normal course of a game) and give it to her, she can cook with two.
** In ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'', Zess T. can only cook with one item at a time until and unless you retrieve a cookbook; it's easy enough to get to, but it's not like it practically falls into your normal path the way the first game's does.
** In ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'', Flipside has a chef who can only cook with one item at a time; the chef in Flopside, on the other hand, can cook with two.

* ''{{Arcanum}}'' has this for all of its inventions, although some items may require a chain of creations: say, iron ore and steel to make pure ore and pure ore and a handle. Notably, it does this in violation of conservation of mass, where not only can you lose weight from it (which makes some sense) but you can also gain weight.
* ''VideoGame/{{Wizardry}} VIII''. Moreover, two source items, required skill and its value are moddable properties of item. Engineering (Gadgeteer class) and Alchemy (Alchemist class) skills are widely used that way. You can get extra profit from Alchemy combining 2 cheap item into 1 expensive or at least turn 2 heaps of rather pitiful items into 1 heap of really useful ones.
* Aversion: ''{{Fallout 3}}'' has Four Ingredient "[[http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Schematics Cooking]]".

* Averted in ''HarvestMoon: Friends of Mineral Town''. Not only can you use up to eight ingredients in cooking (not counting spices), but you also have to choose the right utensils to make the recipie! Luckily, most of them are fairly intuitive, except for the ultra-special recipies.

* In ''DarkCloud 2'', you "invent" things (most of which have long since been invented) by taking pictures of random stuff, and combining them for inspiration. Then, you need a certain number of several raw materials to make it, and there you go!
* In ''[=~Star Ocean: The Second Story~=]'', there are only six ingredients (meat, seafood, eggs/dairy, fruit, vegetable, grain), but with just two of them, you can make anything. You can also cook items like shark fin soup or cheese pizza with one ingredient.

** "Justified?" Dude, this is a game where you can make a superweapon by attatching a toilet plunger to an engine block, and a pair of Sweet Rims is a required part for all cars.

* ''{{Wizardry}} VIII''. Moreover, two source items, required skill and its value are moddable properties of item. Engineering (Gadgeteer class) and Alchemy (Alchemist class) skills are widely used that way. You can get extra profit from Alchemy combining 2 cheap item into 1 expensive or at least turn 2 heaps of rather pitiful items into 1 heap of really useful ones.

----

** ''{{Daggerfall}}'' evades the question altogether by only allowing people who belong to a Temple to bring ingredients to a potion-maker.