History Main / MutuallyExclusivePowerups

* ''VideoGame/RiseOfTheTriad'': Not only could you only have one active powerup at a time and grabbing a new one replaced the old one (apart from the bulletproof or asbestos vests, which were still mutually exclusive to each other), you could only have one missile weapon at a time. If you ran across a bazooka while you were holding an Excalibat, for instance, you would leave the Excalibat on the floor as you grabbed the bazooka.

* ''VideoGame/RiseOfTheTriad'' seemingly lived this trope. Not only could you only have one active powerup at a time and grabbing a new one replaced the old one (apart from the bulletproof or asbestos vests, which were still mutually exclusive to each other), you could only have one missile weapon at a time. If you ran across a bazooka while you were holding an Excalibat, for instance, you would leave the Excalibat on the floor as you grabbed the bazooka.

* ''VideoGame/FTLFasterThanLight'' won't let you have a medbay and a clone bay on the same ship. The medbay allows you to heal your crew in combat (while they're in it); the clone bay imparts ResurrectiveImmortality and a per-jump HealingFactor; but the clone has their skills nerfed.

** Some point into the game, you find a stockpile of [[InfinityPlusOneSword Infinity Plus One Weapons]]. You only get to take one with you. (If your class can't equip the weapon you want, you get one normal weapon training instead. You don't get to pick another on a NewGamePlus either.

** The same principle applied in the sequel ''VideoGame/MetroidIIReturnOfSamus'', where there were Ice, Wave, Plasma, and Spazer Beams available to Samus, but she could still only have one at once.

SubTrope of UniquenessRule. Compare InventoryManagementPuzzle, LimitedLoadout, StanceSystem and SwissArmyHero. Subtrope of DiscardAndDraw. See also MutuallyExclusiveMagic.

Compare InventoryManagementPuzzle, LimitedLoadout, StanceSystem and SwissArmyHero. Subtrope of DiscardAndDraw. See also MutuallyExclusiveMagic.

* Every unit in ''VideoGame/BattleRealms'' can only have one Battle Gear at any time. While Heroes, Monks and Ninja only have one anyway, most units usually have a choice between two or more, depending on the player's choice. For example, the Dragon Clan's Samurai can either get Yang Blade from the Shrine (which boosts Yang generation and damage the more Yang the player has) or Dragon Skin from the Fireworks Factory (which boosts the Samurai's resistance to projectiles).

* In ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiStrangeJourney'', there's the EX Mission "The Mecha Dragon's Secret," in which a crewmember tasks you with negotiating with Fafnir (a robotic dragon in Sector H) for a piece of itself so he can research its technology. If successful, Fafnir will gladly give up a fragment of its own body --either a Dragon Screw, a Dragon Scale, or a Dragon Circuit. The crewmember will then [[ItemCrafting fashion that one item]] into a sword, a vest, or a ring, and (unless you [[RandomDrops farm the components for the Dragon Vest]] elsewhere) you can't have any other item unless you go through the game [[NewGamePlus another couple of times]] and negotiate the other pieces from Fafnir again.

** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'' added the mutually exclusive raccoon/tanuki/frog/hammer suits to the original game's Fire Flower. In ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'', the flower and cape are mutually exclusive (though the Select Button box makes this less problematic). In ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros'', the flower, blue shell, and Mini Mushroom are mutually exclusive, and getting the Mega Mushroom deletes whatever powerup you had.
** A strange exception in ''Mario 3'' was that if you got a Tanuki suit while using a P-Wing, the P-Wing effect would transfer from the Raccoon to the Tanuki.

** In ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'', you always have FLUDD's Squirt nozzle, and can have only one of the Hover nozzle (the default), Rocket nozzle, or Turbo nozzle at once.

** ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'' downplays this with beam upgrades; the Spazer Beam and Plasma Beam cannot be equipped at the same time without glitching the game irrevocably, although the Ice and Wave Beams work together with either of the two and with each other. Later side-scrolling iterations in the ''Metroid'' series, including [[VideoGame/MetroidZeroMission Zero Mission]]'', just allow Samus to equip all beams at once.

** In ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'', you always have FLUDD's Squirt nozzle, and can have only one of the Hover nozzle (the default), Rocket nozzle, or Turbo nozzle at once.

* ''VideoGame/ZeroRanger'' goes a step further with this trope. At the end of each of the first three stages, you are presented with two different choices of a new weapon, and when you pick up one of those weapons, the other becomes unavailable for the rest of the current run. For example, at the end of stage 1, if you obtain the side-shot weapon, you cannot get the back-shot, or vice versa. The only way around this is in a 2-player game, in which case the other player can take the weapon you didn't pick.

* The spaceship in ''VideoGame/RType'' could only hold one of the three lasers at a time.

Compare InventoryManagementPuzzle, LimitedLoadout, StanceSystem and SwissArmyHero. Subtrope of DiscardAndDraw.

* In the "VideoGame/GranTurismo" series, on the rare occasions where you can even try, you cannot equip NA Tune, Turbine kits and later on Superchargers at the same time.

* The "Threewave CTF" GameMod for ''VideoGame/QuakeII'' has the Runes[[note]]Disruptor Shield, [[RegeneratingHealth Auto Doc]], [[SuperSpeed Time Accelerator]] and [[QuadDamage Power Amplifier]][[/note]]. Players can hold one at a time, and they last until the players toss it, get fragged or commit suicide.
* The Holdable items in ''VideoGame/QuakeIIIArena''[[note]]Personal Teleporter and [[HealThyself Medkit]][[/note]] and ''[[ExpansionPack Quake III: Team Arena]]''[[note]][[SuicideAttack Kamikaze]] and Invulnerability[[/note]] work this way. As their name implies, you can hold them and use it when you need it (provided you don't suicide or get fragged), but you can only hold one of these at a time. The same goes for the ''Team Arena'' Runes[[note]]Ammo Regen, [[QuadDamage Doubler]], [[MightyGlacier Guard]], and [[FragileSpeedster Scout]][[/note]], which work the same as the [=Q2CTF=] Runes.
* The Relics[[note]]Defense, [[OneUp Redemption]], [[RegeneratingHealth Regeneration]], [[SuperSpeed Speed]], [[QuadDamage Strength]], and [[ThanatosGambit Vengeance]][[/note]] added in [[DownloadableContent the first Bonus Pack]] for the original ''VideoGame/UnrealTournament'' work this way, requiring you to drop whatever one you have, thus losing its effects, to pick up another one and gain its effects. WordOfGod confirmed that these Relics are inspired by the [=Q2CTF=] Runes.

* In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThracia776'', the Wrath and Vantage skills cannot be combined on one character (attempts to do so will have one override the other). This is due to the fact that Wrath lets you always critical when you're attacked and you counter, and Vantage lets you hit the opponent first when you're attacked; if the two could be combined, this would make a character with both skills functionally invincible.

* No natural material has all of the desirable traits (strength, flexibility, malleability, etc.) for everything we'd want to make without at least one or two downsides (brittleness, fragility, weight, etc.)--this is why high fantasy and science fiction alike is full of Main/{{Unobtainium}}. Not that this has stopped humanity from looking for new resources or, if it really is not possible for it to exist, ''synthesize'' it.

* The "Threewave CTF" GameMod for ''VideoGame/QuakeII'' has the Runes[[note]]Disruptor Shield, [[RegenerativeHealth Auto Doc]], [[SuperSpeed Time Accelerator]] and [[QuadDamage Power Amplifier]][[/note]]. Players can hold one at a time, and they last until the players toss it, get fragged or commit suicide.

* The Relics[[note]]Defense, [[OneUp Redemption]], [[RegenerativeHealth Regeneration]], [[SuperSpeed Speed]], [[QuadDamage Strength]], and [[ThanatosGambit Vengeance]][[/note]] added in [[DownloadableContent the first Bonus Pack]] for the original ''VideoGame/UnrealTournament'' work this way, requiring you to drop whatever one you have, thus losing its effects, to pick up another one and gain its effects. WordOfGod confirmed that these Relics are inspired by the [=Q2CTF=] Runes.

** Samus can only have either the Ice Beam or the Wave Beam at once in the original ''VideoGame/Metroid1''. It was ''technically'' possible to have both at once by cheating or mucking with the password system, most notably by inputting the NARPAS SWORD code, but this only resulted in an Ice Beam with a different bullet[[note]]Actually the bullet sprite from the Wave Beam colored blue[[/note]].
** The same principle applied in the sequel ''[[VideoGame/MetroidIIReturnOfSamus'', where there were Ice, Wave, Plasma, and Spazer Beams available to Samus, but she could still only have one at once.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaFourSwords'' and ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaFourSwordsAdventures'' only allow each player to have one item other than their sword at a time. If you pick up another one, the first item is dropped in its place

* The haircuts in ''Rocky Rodent''.
* In the NES version of ''VideoGame/{{Contra}}'', and its sequel ''Super C'', the bullet speeds of all of your weapons can be increased with the "Rapid Bullets" power-up. However, this upgrade is lost when the player changes to another weapon. This doesn't apply to the arcade version of the first game, in which the increased bullet speed is carried over from one weapon to another until the player loses a life due to the rarity of the Rapid Bullets power-up in that version.

* [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] in ''VideoGame/{{Control}}'': The Board only gives you access to one powerup in The Foundation DLC: You have to choose between the ability to psychically grow crystal formations ("Self") or to destroy them with your gun ("Weapon"). However, you are later given the other power by an entity called FORMER. The Board isn't happy about it, but they let you keep it once they realizes that they messed up by not letting you have both powers in the first place.