TVTropes Now available in the app store!
Open

Follow TV Tropes

Placeholder Repeat Collectible

Go To

Placeholder Repeat Collectible (trope)

Many games have a number of collectible items for the player to find, often requiring a certain number to beat the game. In cases where there is a finite number of a given collectible, the player would expect to be able to pick each one up only once.

However, in some cases, revisiting the location where the original item was found will reveal a similar "placeholder" collectible in its place, which can still be picked up by the player. This collectible may differ from the original one in appearance, such as by being translucent, although it can still qualify as this trope if its appearance is the same. Picking up these pseudo-collectibles will almost certainly not increase the player's count of them, as this would break the game and allow for an infinite number of them to be obtained.

Why put these placeholder collectibles in the game, then? There may be a few reasons for this. Perhaps the developers just feel it would be useful for the player to remember the locations of collectibles they've already found, thus helping them narrow down where others may be. Alternatively, picking up the "fake" collectible may have some minor beneficial effect, such as restoring health. Another variation of this may be simply replacing the collectible with a more common item.

Subtrope of Gotta Catch Them All. Also a subtrope of Anti-Frustration Features, as it serves as a way of highlighting which collectibles the player already has. May overlap with Gray Is Useless if the repeat collectibles are grayed out and do nothing.


Examples:

  • One of the "collectibles" in 102 Dalmatians: Puppies to the Rescue is puppies trapped inside breakable crates. When you revisit a level, every rescued puppy is replaced with pizza that restores your health.
  • In Bayonetta, upon collecting the Witch Hearts and Moon Pearls, which increase your health and magic, respectively, later playthroughs will replace them with their restorative item counterparts.
  • Celeste replaces strawberries with blue versions. The replacements can be used to contribute to the 1-up achievement or otherwise demonstrate an all-strawberry run.
  • Dark Souls I: On New Game Plus, any unique key items that have been carried over from a previous playthrough are replaced with generic soul items or humanities.
  • In Devil May Cry 1, collecting Blue Orb fragments increases the player’s health. On subsequent playthroughs, they are replaced with Yellow Orbs, which act as the player’s “lives”.
  • In Devil May Cry 4, clearing a Secret Mission for the first time rewards you a Blue Orb Fragment. Clearing that same Secret Mission again on subsequent attempts rewards you Red Orbs instead.
  • Donkey Kong:
    • Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest and Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!: Collected Kremkoins, Bonus Coins, and DK Coins will remain still instead of animating and have a checkmark on them, indicating that the item has already been collected. Touching a collected DK Coin does nothing; the others end the bonus level or boss stage they're found in as usual.
    • In Donkey Kong Country Returns and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Puzzle Pieces that the Kongs already have appear transparent. The KONG letters do this too, but you would only see that by backtracking from a checkpoint after dying, since the games normally only keep track if you collected all of them, and you have to recollect them after every death if you haven't already finished the level (Funky Mode excluded).
    • Donkey Kong Bananza: After collecting a Banandium Gem or Fossil for the first time, revisiting the layer or challenge will have them replaced with something that is shaped like the original collectible, but in a different colour, and smashing it will give gold instead.
  • ENDER MAGNOLIA: Bloom in the Mist: A New Game Plus replaces the collected lore and upgrades of the previous run with ability upgrade materials, since they're only useful the first time.
  • In Grapple Dog and its sequel Grapple Dogs: Cosmic Canines, gems that the player has already picked up (five per level in the original game, and three in the sequel) will reappear in the place where they originally were as translucent versions of themselves. Picking them up again will let the player see which specific gem it is in the order listed in the menu, with the first one being the one closest to the beginning of the level. Bonus level coins (in the first game only) also reappear and can be picked up, but their appearance does not change.
  • In Guild Wars 2, one of the collection sidequests is to get spoon trinkets from across Tyria. Most of the spoons are purchased from various vendors, but three of them are random drops from different events. Once you've gotten one of those spoons, if you repeat that event and RNG says the spoon would drop again, you instead get a Shop Fodder "Broken Spoon".
  • Kirby:
    • Revisiting a stage in Kirby's Dream Land 3 after already collecting that stage's Heart Star will cause the item to be replaced with a 1-Up if the conditions happen to be met again.
    • In Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, revisiting a stage after collecting a Crystal Shard will cause that shard to be replaced with a blue star worth 10 regular stars.
    • Kirby's Return to Dream Land:
      • Revisiting a stage where Energy Spheres have already been collected replaces the gear in the sphere with a red Point Star.
      • In Deluxe, Stamp Tickets collected in stages get replaced with red Point Stars after being collected.
    • Kirby: Triple Deluxe and Kirby: Planet Robobot:
      • Revisiting stages with already-collected Sun Stones or Code Cubes will replace them with a translucent version that gives Kirby 10 Point Stars when collected.
      • Rare keychains or stickers already collected in stages are replaced with regular keychains or stickers upon revisiting them.
    • Kirby Star Allies: Every regular stage in Story Mode contains one Rare Picture Piece that's used to fill out specific parts of certain Celebration Pictures. If Kirby revisits a stage that already has the Rare Picture Piece collected, then picking it up again gives Kirby three regular Picture Pieces instead.
    • In Kirby and the Forgotten Land, Captured Waddle Dees (or Starries in the Switch 2 bonus levels) already rescued in a stage are replaced with piles of Star Coins in the cages where they once were. This also applies to the golden cage at the end of every stage upon subsequent playthroughs.
  • LEGO Adaptation Game: If a major collectable (such as a Gold Brick, minikit, or Power Brick) has already been collected, a blue or purple stud, the less common and more valuable variety of the games' currency, will take its place when the task required to collect it is redone.
  • Polyroll: Gold Gems that the player has already picked up (with three total being present in each level) will reappear as a white outline of a gem when the level is revisited. These pseudo-gems exist mainly so the player can remember the location of the gems they have found, which can be useful to track down the location of the others, as the first gem displayed in the pause menu is always the one closest to the beginning of the level, and so on.
  • Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart: In Challenge Mode, any Armor Pods (which give alternate costumes), Spybots (which grant access to the RYNO 8 for getting all of them), and Gold Bolts (which grant varied rewards) that you collected on your initial playthrough will be replaced with bright cyan holographic versions. Upon collecting them, you'll be rewarded with some bolts instead.
  • In Resident Evil: Revelations 2, each episode has special Gimmick Chests that must be opened by Moira (Claire's campaign) or Natalia (Barry's campaign) that contain prizes like ammo cases to increase the ammo you can hold in reserve, custom parts for upgrading your weapons, and high-rarity jewels worth sizable amounts of BP. Subsequent playthroughs will replace these prizes with lower-rarity jewels, letting the player know that they have already collected the prizes in these chests before.
  • In Shadow Warrior 2, all areas and levels have secret items called Money Statues. These statues can be collected multiple times, however they grant a big amount of Zillyen (between 9000 and 15000) and count for the "Shiny!", "My Precious" and "Ancient Chinese Secret" achievements only on the first pick. Afterwards, picking the same one grants a very low sum of money (above 1000 but no more than 2500) and nothing else, to the point regular Zillyen drops tend to cost more than these statues.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog: Starting with Sonic Colors, most games have five collectible Red Star Rings hidden in each level. When you replay a level, any Red Star Rings you've already collected will appear as translucent. Collecting them again still awards the player points. The only game after Colors to avert this is Sonic Generations.
  • Splatoon:
    • In repeat playthroughs of levels, the Zapfish that you normally collect at the end of the level will be replaced by a dummy version.
    • Splatoon 2: Sardinium is an item hidden in each level that is used to upgrade weapons at the Ammo Knights Enhancifier. Sardinium that has already been collected will appear transparent and award the player five Power Eggs instead.
  • Spyro the Dragon (1998): When an enemy is defeated for the first time, they'll drop a gem, the secondary major collectible of the game. When you replay a level or respawn at a checkpoint after dying, all enemies respawn, but any that you defeated before will drop silver orbs instead of gems. Collecting 20 of these orbs will grant Spyro an extra life. Gems that are found on the ground or in chests, however, stay gone and don't get replaced with anything.
  • Throughout the Super Mario Bros. series, several collectibles will be replaced on revisits:
    • Super Mario 64: Power Stars that have already been collected by the player will be replaced by translucent blue stars the next time they are found. These blue stars can still be collected, and although they do not add to the player's Power Star count, they allow the player to save the game like regular Power Stars. Like the regular ones, collecting one will also cause Mario to exit the level automatically (except for the ones in Peach's Castle and the ones obtained by finding 100 coins in a level).
    • Super Mario Sunshine: All Shine Sprites that you've collected before get replaced with translucent blue Shines that won't increment your Shine count on subsequent visits, just like the Power Stars in Super Mario 64. Unlike the Stars, the Shines retain their eyes after being collected.
    • In the New Super Mario Bros. series, the Star Coin collectibles (and their substitute the Moon Coins in World Star of New Super Mario Bros. 2) are transparent if you already have them and only count for points upon collection.
    • In Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Galaxy 2, the main collectible are Power Stars which take a transparent, glassy form if you already have them.
    • Exclusively to Super Mario Galaxy 2, replaying a level where you've collected the Comet Medal previously will replace it with a translucent blue version. It'll play the fanfare and even temporarily increase your Comet Medal count if you pause the game, but once you leave the level it's removed from your count.
    • In Super Mario 3D Land, Star Medals turn transparent in levels where you grabbed them already. Picking them up again rewards three coins.
    • In Super Mario 3D World, Stamps and Green Stars are replaced with transparent versions of themselves when replaying levels where you got them before. They'll award the same amount of points as they originally did, though.
    • Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker: Stars and Super Gems that you previously collected will both be replaced with transparent versions when replaying a level, which won't give any further progress towards your collectible count.
    • Super Mario Odyssey:
      • The two main collectibles in this installment of Mario are Power Moons and regional coins. If you revisit a world and go to where you already collected the respective Power Moons and regional coins, you'll find see-through versions, which, upon being collected, are converted into ordinary gold coins (ten per Moon, two per regional coin). Re-collecting a Moon will also refill Mario's health.
      • In the postgame, you can Capture Yoshi in the Mushroom Kingdom and use him to eat fruit around the level to earn three Power Moons in total. If you leave and come back, any fruits you already ate will be replaced with transparent versions that give a single coin upon consumption.
    • In Bowser's Fury, previously-collected Cat Shines are replaced with transparent ones that award a few coins upon touching them. They also won't play the usual Item Get! scene or fanfare, nor will they damage Fury Bowser if he's active.
    • In Super Mario Bros. Wonder, 10-flower coins you grabbed in a level before will be transparent on revisits and award three flower coins instead.
  • Tak 2: The Staff of Dreams has red feathers that guide the way, and provide some health. When they reappear, they're purple and smaller.
  • In Ynglet, collectibles that are already collected will be replaced with black/grey versions.
  • Yooka-Laylee has a few repeat collectibles in its remake Replaylee:
    • Quills that the player has already collected will reappear as translucent quills when the player reenters the level. Collecting these quills will count as 1 Q.U.I.D. instead.
    • Pagie challenges can be redone, and will award the player a translucent Pagie which counts as 100 Q.U.I.D.S.

Top