History Main / TeaserEquipment

[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/ChronoTrigger https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TeaserEquipment_3491.jpg]]]]

[[AC: RPG examples]]

* In ''VideoGame/EarthBound'', when guiding Jeff out of Winters to join Ness's party, you'll notice that the store outside of the Snow Wood Boarding School sells the T-Rex's Bat, Non-Stick Frying Pan, and Coin of Silence at insanely high prices, yet you don't have access to the ATM (since Jeff doesn't own an ATM card). The T-Rex's Bat is priced at $698, the Non-Stick Frying Pan at $1490, and the Coin of Silence at $2800. Granted, it ''is'' possible to grind money by selling the food items dropped from enemies outside the store, but the selling prices for them are abysmally low, only going up to $6 at most.

* ''[[{{VideoGame/StarOceanTillTheEndOfTime}} Star Ocean: Till the End of Time]]'' - When you first arrive in Airyglyph City, several powerful weapons and items are sold for 20,000 Fol or more when you'll have barely a tenth of that. Purchasing this gear early is a godsend on the higher difficulties.

* Seltzer in ''VideoGame/StarOceanTheSecondStory'' is sold at many shops throughout the game, starts out prohibitively expensive, and its price continues to rise dramatically based on the total playing time. Unlike most examples, this is just a somewhat useful out-of-battle healing item, so there's not even much reason to buy one anyhow[[note]]The intended use is to buy it early, and sell it much, much later in the game, when the value has skyrocketed. But, since the buy value scales based on the amount of time spent playing the game, unless you farm the rare {{MoneySpider}}s on the first continent, you'll never be able to afford it[[/note]] .

* ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' has a couple merchants on Dantooine with some shockingly good gear at just as shockingly high prices. The Rodian merchant outside the Jedi enclave, for example, sells one of the best heavy armors in game (Cassus Fett's armor). If you want it, you have to get very good at Pazaak, do a lot of grinding, or make a return trip ''before'' you get the third Star Map [[spoiler:because Malak's attack on Dantooine means the merchants and their items are [[PermanentlyMissableContent lost]]]].

* ''VictorVran'' does this big time. The first time you get to the shopkeepers in the castle, you won't be able to buy ''anything''. Later on in the game, perhaps you'll be able to buy one high-powered item before breaking your bank. Be ''very'' thorough in your gold scavenging and you might make it to two - by leaving yourself unable to buy anything else for many levels.

[[AC: Non-RPG Examples]]
* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda''
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendofZeldaLinksAwakening'' features the Shovel (200 rupees), and later the Bow (980 rupees) in the item shop, long before you are expected to be able to afford them. Granted, you can cheap out the Crane Game in order to buy both items right at the beginning of the game ([[TakeAThirdOption or just steal them]])...

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendofZeldaTheWindWaker'' has a shop in early in the game that sells bombs for more money than Link can actually carry. You can acquire these bombs for free later on when [[spoiler:the pirates rob the store]], and afterwards the shopkeeper begins to sell bombs at a more reasonable price.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'': Early on in the game, you can find an armor shop in almost every settlement in Hyrule. But even the least expensive piece from an armor set can cost several hundred rupees at a point when you'll be lucky to find red 20 rupee gems. Even in the mid- to late-game, when these armor sets are more affordable, the Ancient Armor set and various Ancient weapons sold at the Akkala Ancient Tech Lab can be this, as they not only cost lots of rupees but also require you to have components dropped by [[DemonicSpiders Guardians]].

* In ''{{VideoGame/Faxanadu}}'', one of the game's most powerful spells and the best shield can be bought near the beginning...if you have obscene amounts of gold. You can either grind for a very long time[[note]]Which turns the Death spell into a GameBreaker for half the game[[/note]], or get the spell near the end of the game (when the price has actually increased).
* In ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClank2002'' and ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankGoingCommando'', the [[InfinityPlusOneSword R.Y.N.O.]] (II) is introduced on a relatively early planet (Rilgar in the first, Barlow in the second), and costs an obscene amount of [[UniversalCurrency bolts]] (to the point that you may have to beat the game ''twice'' in order to save up enough). Later games avert this entirely by either introducing the weapon extremely late in the game, or requiring you to collect a certain number of out-of-the-way collectibles but then giving it to you for free afterwards.

** ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendofZeldaLinksAwakening Link's Awakening]]'' features the Shovel (200 rupees), and later the Bow (980 rupees) in the item shop, long before you are expected to be able to afford them. Granted, you can cheap out the Crane Game in order to buy both items right at the beginning of the game ([[TakeAThirdOption or just steal them]])...
** Happens a lot near the beginning of ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina of Time]]'', where some shops have items whose price exceeds what you can even store in your wallet.
** ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendofZeldaTheWindWaker The Wind Waker]]'' has a shop in early in the game that sells bombs for more money than Link can actually carry. You can acquire these bombs for free later on when [[spoiler:the pirates rob the store]], and afterwards the shopkeeper begins to sell bombs at a more reasonable price.
** ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess Twilight Princess]]'' - The shop at Castle Town sells bombs, arrows, and other mundane items for thousands of rupees. The exact same gear can be bought elsewhere for 1% of the cost, or found on monsters roaming town, with the exception of a unique set of Magic Armor that costs '''a hundred thousand'''. The HD remake, which increases Link's Rupee carrying capacity, also increases the prices in the store to ''tens'' of thousands of Rupees per item, making the Magic Armor '''400,000'''. The absolute maximum number of rupees Link can carry at all is 1,000 (9,999 in the HD version). Once you give enough money to Malo (which doesn't even come close to the amount needed to buy one pack of bombs from the Castle Town shop -- [[FridgeLogic go figure]]), he buys out the shop, which reduces the cost of items immensely.
** Early on in ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild Breath of the Wild]]'', you can find an armor shop in almost every settlement in Hyrule. But even the least expensive piece from an armor set can cost several hundred rupees at a point when you'll be lucky to find red 20 rupee gems. Even in the mid- to late-game, when these armor sets are more affordable, the Ancient Armor set and various Ancient weapons sold at the Akkala Ancient Tech Lab can be this, as they not only cost lots of rupees but also require you to have components dropped by [[DemonicSpiders Guardians]].

* In ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClank2002'' and ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankGoingCommando'', the [[InfinityPlusOneSword R.Y.N.O.]] (II) is introduced on a relatively early planet (Rilgar in the first, Barlow in the second), and costs an obscene amount of [[UniversalCurrency bolts]]. Later games avert this entirely by either introducing the weapon extremely late in the game, or requiring you to collect a certain number of out-of-the-way collectibles but then giving it to you for free afterwards.

'''Merchant:''' [[HyperactiveMetabolism ...What do you need food for?]]

* The ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' series occasionally has equipment sold by [[NonPlayerCharacter NPCs]] that maybe be just out of your price range, moreso when you've just started and lack any caps. The [[DownloadableContent Gun Runner's Arsenal]] for ''[[VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas New Vegas]]'' can fall into this trope heavily, as it distributes the new weapons and weapon mods throughout the game in the inventories of most vendors quite randomly, so you might wind up looking through an early-game NPC's stock to find items that you wouldn't be able to afford without procuring a downright absurd amount of [[VendorTrash loot]].

* ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' has a couple merchants on Dantooine with some shockingly good gear at just as shockingly high prices. The Rodian merchant outside the Jedi enclave, for example, sells one of the best heavy armors in game (Cassus Fett's armor). If you want it, you have to get very good at Pazaak, do a lot of griniding, or make a return trip ''before'' you get the third Star Map [[spoiler:because Malak's attack on Dantooine means the merchants and their items are [[PermanentlyMissableContent lost]]]].

* In the early years of ''VideoGame/RuneScape'' there were many shops that sold equipment rune-level equipment for very high prices, and some shops in difficult to reach places even sold dragon-level equipment for insanely high prices. This is no longer an example of this trope because even though these shops still exist, it is much easier to obtain these items from other players or though other means, and plus earning coins is now a lot easier and there are several new tiers of equipment making those items obsolete.

* In ''VideoGame/{{STALKER}}'' at the beginning of a new campaign, the "Tunder" 5.45 may be bought from Sidorovich. From the moment the player starts a new game, he will randomly offer the weapon for sale at a price of 20000 RU at a time when having 200RU is an achievement. However, the "Tunder" 5.45 will only appear up until the Marked One speaks to Wolf after defeating the Bandits that captured Nimble. The weapon is also a [[DiscOneNuke Disk one Nuke]] since it fires the very common 5.45 round while dealing damage on par with end game weapons, prompting some players to grind money until they can afford it.

* Before the introduction of the Kiwame feature in ''VideoGame/ToukenRanbu'', clearing stage 6-4 for the first time gives three pieces of mysterious equipment that were later revealed as Kiwame equipments once the feature is implemented.

* ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'': The first time you arrive at Medina, the shopkeepers sell weapons three tiers above what you'll currently be using, for 10 times the gold you'd expect. This is all because the fiends of the village hate humans after losing a war 400 years ago. [[spoiler:After you've changed history to make fiends no longer hate humans, the prices become more reasonable, but by then, the gear is outclassed.]]

* ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'' - The first time you arrive at Medina, the shopkeepers sell weapons three tiers above what you'll currently be using, for 10 times the gold you'd expect. Justified in that the fiends of the village hate humans after losing a war 400 years ago. [[spoiler:After you've changed history to make fiends no longer hate humans, the prices become more reasonable, but by then, the gear is outclassed.]]
** Another example occurs at the very beginning of the game. The [[spoiler:Guru]] Melchior is visiting the Millennial Fair and has a Silver Sword for sale. Unless you farm money for a long time, you won't be able to afford it until you've progressed through at least one more dungeon, at which point he leaves the fair.

* Inverted in the newer ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' games. Even if you have the money to do so, shops refuse to sell you the higher level Poke Balls and healing items until you've advanced the plot and obtained sufficient Gym Badges.
** A straighter example with the bicycle in [[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue R/B/Y]]. When you first arrive in Cerulean City, it is on display for [[{{Cap}} exactly one more unit of money than you can carry]]. After advancing the plot in the next town, you get a voucher to acquire one for free.

* ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss'' has a variation: shops will regularly display items they ''do not sell at all'' until you partake in sidequests (the same sidequests also reduce the prices of items that you ''can'' buy.) Some shopkeepers will even have their ''entire stock'' "Sold Out" until you do the necessary sidequests, yet they will still thank you for "shopping" at their outlets.

* RealLife also plays this straight with expensive cars, houses, jewelry, and other big-ticket items. Fortunately, a lot of this stuff falls into BraggingRightsReward.

* ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'' - The first time you arrive at Medina, the shopkeepers sell weapons three tiers above what you'll currently be using, for 10 times the gold you'd expect. Justified in that the fiends of the village hate humans after losing a war 400 years ago. [[spoiler: After you've changed history to make fiends no longer hate humans, the prices become more reasonable, but by then, the gear is outclassed.]]
** Another example occurs at the very beginning of the game. The [[spoiler: Guru]] Melchior is visiting the Millennial Fair and has a Silver Sword for sale. Unless you farm money for a long time, you won't be able to afford it until you've progressed through at least one more dungeon, at which point he leaves the fair.

** ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendofZeldaTheWindWaker The Wind Waker]]'' has a shop in early in the game that sells bombs for more money than Link can actually carry. You can acquire these bombs for free later on when [[spoiler: the pirates rob the store]].

* RealLife also plays this straight with expensive cars, houses, jewelry, and other big-ticket items. Fortunately, a lot of this stuff falls into BraggingRightsReward.

* In the early RatchetAndClank games, the [[InfinityPlusOneSword R.Y.N.O.]] was almost always introduced on a relatively early planet, and always costed an obscene amount of [[UniversalCurrency bolts]]. Later games averted this entirely.

** Happens a lot near the beginning of ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina of Time]]'', where some shops have items whose price exceeds what you can even store in your wallet.