"Better save these elixirs for the last boss." Proceeds to beat the game without using them
this post was submitted on 18 Jun 2025
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There really should be an achievement for this.
Also fuck games that make you consume a potion so you know that’s how potions work.
That NPC handed me a potion and it’s my prerogative to carry it around for the rest of the game.
Agreed there, personally though I do feel one of the biggest silly combinations games often make is, having marathon grade health, easy access to health potions AND a save anytime system. It's like I could use a potion to heal up... or I could go back 5 seconds and do the fight without taking a hit.
I feel like it's often bad game design from developers who think they need to put in consumables without understanding their gameplay value.
In too many games using up all your consumables is just A Thing That Happens. So the game is balanced to allow you to survive anyway. But then the corollary is that if it works for a bit then you can finish the game without using any of the consumables. The consumables are just a way to make already achievable portions of the game easier, which is just sloppy game design IMO. Bethesda games for instance are very guilty of that.
At least when I'm playing Bethesda games, potions are a way for me to clear achievable portions that I've made unnecessarily difficult for myself.
This recently happened in my campaign.
We were fighting a dragon, and it kept flying around its lair, making it very hard for my Barbarian to hit it. We ultimately won, but 3 of the party of 5 died.
Later, while dividing loot, I saw that I had been carrying a Potion of Flying the whole time, and the fight probably would have gone better if I had used it.
I'm awful about forgetting about my x/per day abilities, especially if they are granted from magic items. I've taken to writing them down on a post-it note to keep them handy for a session.
A video game I play recently added on-screen panic buttons, so for all the items you might want to use in a pinch. It's a turn-based game, so you really have all the time in the world to check your items, but they're still all listed there to remind you of the options you have. And of course, I still manage to completely ignore them when I get into a panic. 🫠
None of them were health potions.
dick enlargement potions are popular nowadays
Those MIGHT be helpful in battle too, though, depending on what you're working with..
I'm working on a Metroidvania game where consumables work on a system where when you use one it'll respawn at its original location. You can only carry one copy of any given consumable at a time but if you're willing to do a bit of backtracking you can always replenish your stock.
Sounds like Nioh to me, except for the takeout part.
I've never played Nioh, but I wanted a mechanic where the player is encouraged to save their consumables for when they really need them but not to the point where they start to just hoard them for the entire game. My main inspiration was actually the sub tanks in the Mega Man X games with how they can be re-filled as many times as you want, but I wanted a system that ties in more closely with the exploration aspects of the game.
You seem to misunderstand the players motivation. Every resource hoarder I’ve known is doing so out of subconscious anxiety rather than any sense of strategic planning. They could be in a room made of potions fighting a potion monster, and they would still die with an untouched inventory.
Make a game that starts with a therapy driven tutorial, and maybe you’ll get somewhere.
It's an anxiety from the fact that we have been burned from using an item and then find out there are only like 3 in the universe and we did it as a top off measure we didn't even need.
Perhaps for you, but the people I have witnessed that behavior in seem to do it with everything—maxed out inventory slots of 99+ for no reason. I’m sure there are a thousand motivations that make someone hoard, but my personal observation is that it has more to do with neurotic personality traits than poor game design.
Furthermore, if it really is fear of not getting the item again, then why do I see people still not use their resources on final boss battles? There won’t be a next time, so it is seemingly worth it to finally dip into the stash.
Kinda like rocket league boosts, haha
Hey don't criticize how I play!
This is why I like games where I can combine weaker potions into the more potent equivalent.
Basically DayZ
"It's not your loot, just your turn to use it."
I was so bad at this growing up...
It's not quite this same, but I was renting a Sega Genesis game called Elemental Master for the weekend. It started with a stage select screen like Mega Man and after beating the initial ones you fight the last boss. The game play was more like Gunsmoke though (top-down shooting). Well I fought all the way to the last boss and then died.
After my fit of anger. I noticed that there were power-ups that you get after beating the other levels. You start mastering more than just the reg attack, like Mega Man. 😔 I felt very dumb, but the game was more fun after that.
As a DM this is always a dilemma - you want to reward the party with some nice stuff but you hate to kill off a character with it. So it looks like the BBG left his most powerful item in the closet for some reason.
The clair obscure / CybP 2077 healing item handling is the way
How does Cyberpunk 2077 handle it?
Since 2.0 instead of buying consumable items you have consumable item types that can be upgraded and a certain amount of charges with a cooldown. These can be upgraded by finding/ buying health item upgrades and perks
So you don't have to save them because they will regenerate in 20 seconds and you can't just spam them in fight like in previous versions
Grim Dawn has a similar approach. You just have a health and energy potion that goes on cooldown. No need to worry about potions for inventory management or remembering to buy them in town or checking if you need to pick some up, plus less loot clutter because of it. The potions return a % of hp/energy, so they scale with your character. And it helps with balance because now those players who do farm tons of potions so they can spam them don't need to be considered.
But... but... if I use it now then I won't have it later when I might need it! 😱
Enough to put some flesh back on those old bones.