Basic Trope: Two sides have an arms race using technology they dig up or salvage.
- Straight: Tropeland and Tropacia are in the middle of an arms race. Both sides frequently find and make use of caches of technology which was left behind in the last war.
- Exaggerated: Hundreds of years ago Neglectful Precursors left absurdly powerful weapons technology lying around. The entire conflict started over disagreements over who it should belong to....
- Downplayed: Several battles in the Great Trope War were decided when one side managed to stumble on some old technology, but most of the technology was developed by the side who used it or captured from their enemies.
- Justified: The technology from the last war was extremely sturdy and the subsequent damage to the world's infrastructure means that later weapons systems are less powerful.
- Inverted: Tropeland and Tropacia are developing technology to bury in caches so that their descendants have an advantage in subsequent wars.
- Subverted: Most of the technology doesn't work anymore. Being buried in the ground for thousands of years does that.
- Tropeland and Tropacia look to the past to find an advantage, only to find their weapons are already superior.
- Double Subverted:
- The technology was made of extremely effective materials (which can no longer be manufactured), even as scrap it's still extremely valuable.
- The weapons maybe scrap, but studying their theory of operation allows the Tropeland and/or Tropecia to make functional copies.
- Parodied:
- Two armies stare each other down on the battlefield before beginning to mine for weapons.
- Two technologically advanced armies spend months to dig up ancient swords and shields to battle each other, believing that all ancient weapons work better than the tanks and helicopters they already have.
- Zig Zagged: How reliant either side is on the salvaged technology depends on the plot.
- Averted: Technology never improves during the war; there's no time for research or digs until peacetime.
- Enforced: Some executives want to sell a toyline which has a completely different style to the Desertpunk setting of the series, so the writers use this trope to write the toys into the plot.
- Lampshaded: "They sure knew how to make a tank back in the day, huh?"
- Invoked: The armies of Tropeland and Tropacia fund archeological expeditions in the hope that they'll turn up weapons technology.
- Exploited: Certain soldiers from either army carry specialised digging equipment rather than weaponry, knowing that they'll probably find something far superior to any weapons they would be issued with just a bit of searching....
- Defied: Treaties forbid the use of ancient artifacts in war; it's simply too valuable in peacetime to squander in a petty conflict (indeed, even while the war rages on, scientists from both sides collaborate peacefully).
- Discussed: "Quick! Into that cave. Maybe we'll find a long lost super weapon to defend ourselves with!"
- Conversed: "Why's that bunker so important?" "It probably has something cool in it."
- Deconstructed: A mysterious third faction called the Trope Brotherhood appears and sticks to technology which it has developed itself. This proves to be much more efficient than digging up old technology and it's soon dominating Tropeland and Tropacia.
- Reconstructed:
- Tropeland and Tropacia learn their lesson and all three sides keep researching their own technology, however the discovery of particularly powerful artifacts still tend to be the turning points in the war.
- Until Tropeland and Tropacia unite their archaeological efforts and unearth a Wave-Motion Gun that allows them to crush the Trope Brotherhood, which can't defend itself because it has no experience with the Neglectful Precursors' technology.
You manage to dig up a link back to Archaeological Arms Race!
