Rare consumables you actually use

[King Tubby]

When I get rare, nonrenewable items in an RPG, like Elixir or Ether in a typical Final Fantasy for example, I tend to hoard them. In games where you revive after death with your items persisting (e.g. FromSoft games) it can be even more pronounced, since the items can be wasted and eventually exhausted if you run into a tough encounter and keep using them after every death.

Divine Blessing and Elizabeth's Mushroom from Dark Souls​

The end result is that I show up to the final area with a fair amount of the most broken items in the game, sometimes allowing me to trivialize the final encounter(s) if I so choose. I'm sure many of you can relate.

So what are some examples of rare consumables in games that you do end up using? The first one that came to mind for me is the Master Ball.

This is a one-of-a-kind item that guarantees catching any wild Pokemon in the game, with a few special exceptions. Despite only getting one per run, the design of the Pokemon games makes it worth using, since there are Pokemon that are extremely rare and difficult to catch. It is a super item where the use case is easy to identify and it has no chance of failure, and the benefit of using it persists for the rest of your run.

 

[Neoxon]

Dragon Drink smoothies in Ring Fit Adventure. You can only get Dragon Fruit in certain levels, but damn is it worth it.

 

[Wrexis]

Any type of disposable grenade? Oh, there's only three in the game? *chucks them all*

 

[Soul Lab]

I actually never use consumables in Souls games, because I'm afraid I'm going to waste them…

 

[Rookhelm]

Rare upgrade materials stress me out.

I know there's only 1 or 2 in the game, I have to decide which weapon I want to level up to max

 

[Perkin_Warbeck]

The way they designed the cracked pot consumables in Elden Ring works really well I think. Because the herb ingredients are pretty easy to get and you get the pot back, I'm not that reluctant to actually use them.

 

[Ashes of Dreams]

Honestly I end up not using stuff like this because I forget moreso than because I want to hoard them (though sometimes that is true too). Last time I played a Pokemon game I saved up my Rare Candies because obviously it's more useful to use them for later levels than earlier ones... didn't remember them until like a week after I was done playing the game.

As for times I DO use them. SP consumables in Persona games. Don't care if they aren't super common, if they let me do a few more floors/areas of a dungeon then they are worth it. Final Fantasy ethers don't get the same treatment.

A specific example. The last boss of Sekiro. I had spent all day trying to beat it and was finally close to the end but then had a pretty bad moment where I almost died. Was in that "one more hit and I'm dead" state and I just didn't want to fight the boss again so I ate all the one of a kind and rare healing items. Thankfully I did win. If I had died after that I'd have been VERY upset.

 

[Sonix]

If it doesn't restock after dying or isn't buyable and or (somewhat easily) farmable I'll just never use it.
I beat Elden Ring with a Blade and a Shield and my replenishing flasks. That was it. No crafting, no Arcs or whatever. I just can't do it.

 

[The Gold Hawk]

Preserving Boluses from Elden Ring. Must stress that I only used them BEFORE knowing they were finite. Gobbled them down like tic tacs.

"Let's make one of the most dangerous status effects only be curable by a spell, that stops you from moving, or a little poop ball. Let's make sure there is only teeny amount of them out in the wild and the let's make the crafiting materials make it, finite. Let's also make the status effect be a shockingly common problem and let's just pepper a third of the game areas with it." Some weiner at Fromsoft...probably

 

[giapel]

If it doesn't restock after dying or isn't buyable and or (somewhat easily) farmable I'll just never use it.
I beat Elden Ring with a Blade and a Shield and my replenishing flasks. That was it. No crafting, no Arcs or whatever. I just can't do it.

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I'll use Boluses once in a while, why not. But Rune arcs? I mean, if I was that good at Elden Ring and not die every 5 seconds, I wouldn't need the bonuses would I? Just rubbish.

 

[Banzai]

My FF7 Remake replay was the first time i liberally used Elixirs simply because you can't use items in hard mode anyway. Sure made the endgame bosses a bit easy when you know about that.

 

[Goddo Hando]

120 hours into elden ring and i've still haven't used an Arc Rune. I'm hoarding it for someday but ... lol

 

[Red]

120 hours into elden ring and i've still haven't used an Arc Rune. I'm hoarding it for someday but ... lol

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They give you so many there isn't really a reason to skip em. I had 99 by like halfway through when I opted into invasions. And I wasn't shy about using them.

 

[EntelechyFuff]

I love Dark Souls 2 brightbugs. I would just pop those things even in non-boss encounters of minor annoyance. There's very few in the game but it feels good to just hit the "fuck it" button once in a while.

Another great DS2 innovation that was disregarded in the rest of the series.

 

[Sonix]

They give you so many there isn't really a reason to skip em. I had 99 by like halfway through when I opted into invasions. And I wasn't shy about using them.

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Thats the problem, play without invasions and you really don't get any regularily. I had 21 after beating the game.

 

[Goddo Hando]

They give you so many there isn't really a reason to skip em. I had 99 by like halfway through when I opted into invasions. And I wasn't shy about using them.

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i don't do pvp at all, and i've collected nearly 30, and i think it just makes my hoarding worse

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

120 hours into elden ring and i've still haven't used an Arc Rune. I'm hoarding it for someday but ... lol

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Using a Rune Arc only to get one-shotted by a Lobster at Lvl 125.

 

[pillowtalk]

In modern games I just now assume they know what they're doing when there's a rare item and the first one's a freebie, followed by an easy to collect second one, then the rest are next to impossible. I just factor that into my gameplay when upgrading equipment or using emergency items.

 

[Charlie0108]

Another Pokemon one that I always use is Max Revives. Usually a pretty limited supply throughout the games.

 

[Kyrios]

I always make sure I use any rare items that permanently boost stats.

I'm still terrible when it comes to using full cure items like elixirs lol

 

[Tavernade]

I think I've used the Master Ball every single time I've had one, usually but not always against the cover legendary.

Another Pokemon one that I always use is Max Revives. Usually a pretty limited supply throughout the games.

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Yeah this too. Especially in battle. Out of battle a regular revive + potion is normally enough.

 

[Pocky4Th3Win]

NONE

Never use consumables, must hoard because you never know when you will need them... and forget to use them.

 

[Armoredgoomba]

Whacka bumps in paper mario thousand year door. You only get 8 but whether you sell them or use them to help you in some bosses they are worth it.

Rare consumables they just do temp stat boosts in games I rarely want to use. More likely they will just sit in inventory forever.

 

[Efejota]

In Project Zero / Fatal Frame film is your ammo and increases your score. So while I go with the cheaper ones for most enemies, I use all my strong arsenal during boss fights.

And that includes the rare "Type Zero" film. There's no reason to let them go to waste and using them is actually tense because you could miss the shot if done wrong, unlike in Pokémon where the Master Ball kills all the tension of the encounter.

 

[Morrigan]

I used Brightbugs in Dark Souls 2 against difficult bosses like Darklurker and the DLC bosses. Made a huge different, especially in hard mode (Company of Champions). Don't think I could have beaten the Ivory King or the King's Pets without Brightbugs in the CoC, anyway. Oh and Human Effigies of course.

I used rune arcs in Elden Ring quite a lot (it helps that doing successful coop/invasions reward you with one).

 

[hunnies28]

I remeber using sacred ash or something of the sort in pokemon gold out of laziness of walking back to a pokemon center

 

[Charlie0108]

I think I've used the Master Ball every single time I've had one, usually but not always against the cover legendary.

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I always use the Master Ball on roamers like Cresselia, Entei/Raikou, Mespirit etc. that are just a pain to catch. That or any legendary that knows Recover because they're just annoying.

 

[Kadzork]

 

[Cipherr]

 

[Amnesty]

I just use elixirs when I need to throughout a playthrough. I feel there's no point in saving most of them up for later, since the final tiers of bosses in jrpgs are never so demanding that I need more than a few at that point.

 

[riotous]

You can use multiple slurp juices on a single ape.

 

[cecilpaladin32]

Fellow Elixir hoarder, here.

 

[DoctorPlayer MD]

Hoarded most of the rare items in Octopath Traveler, but had to use pretty much all of them (elixers, jams, etc) in the final battle and even then I barely made it.

 

[SilkySm00th]

The only one I could think of that I just used like crazy was the exosive bullets in DuesEx - once my revolver was there to use em and I had em on hand I would go hands on like 90% of everyone and anyone left over/turrets IMMEDIATELY got the big smoke HE rounds. Always felt great.