History Main / FreeSamplePlotCoupon

The work you're in has a writer, of course. In this case, the writer knows that a handy way to structure a plot is to present it as a quest for a [[PlotCoupon certain number of special items]]. But your heart may sink when you receive what looks like the Grocery List from Hell -- find the Four Stars of Virtue, slay the Six Dragons of Deceit, win a kiss from all Fifteen Maidens of Dubious Intent, and only ''then'' can you defeat the [[BigBad Dark Emperor]]... You know, slaying even ''one'' Dragon of Deceit could be the plot of an entire adventure. And what does a Maiden of Dubious Intent look like, anyway?

* In ''Film/{{Lockout}}'', Snow receives the lighter and briefcase from the dying Colonel and promptly stashes the briefcase [[spoiler:(which turns out to be a Mock Guffin) and -- unknowingly -- keeps the lighter which is the ACTUAL item he seeking.]]
* ''Film/TheGoldenVoyageOfSinbad''. The grand vizier of Marabia gives Sinbad a quest to find the three golden tablets before the evil Koura does. Luckily Sinbad accidentally acquired the first tablet from Koura before meeting the vizier; the vizier has the second; and Sinbad uses the first two it to locate the area where the last tablet can be found.

*** Link and Midna must reunite the four fragments of the Mirror of Twilight in order to enter Zant's whereabouts. The first fragment, luckily, is still in the Mirror when they find it broken, so they only have to look for three more.
*** Midna is already wearing the first piece of the four Fused Shadows when the player meets her.

** In ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkBetweenWorlds A Link Between Worlds]]'', the Pendant of Courage [[ChekhovsGun is actually Zelda's special charm]], which she gives Link when he goes to warn her about Yuga.

** ''Series/KamenRiderGhost'' gets the Musashi Eyecon immediately upon acquiring his superpowers, but has to hunt down the other fourteen needed to wish him back to life.

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** In ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'', the first of 8 Pure Hearts is given to you by Merlon when you first arrive in Flipside.

* ''Film/TheGoldenVoyageOfSinbad''. The Grand Vizier of Marabia gives Sinbad a quest to find the three golden tablets before the evil Koura does. Luckily Sinbad accidentally acquired the first tablet from Koura before meeting the Vizier, and uses it to locate the area where the other two tablets can be found.

* The main conflict of ''Anime/YuGiOhZexal'' revolves around collecting the 100 Number monsters. They were released into the wild during a duel, and the first one we see chose main protagonist Yuma's opponent (and later rival), Shark. Luckily, Yuma himself got the second one.

* In ''Film/{{Lockout}}'', Snow receives the lighter and briefcase from the dying Colonel and promptly stashes the briefcase (which turns out to be a Mock Guffin) and -- unknowingly -- keeps the lighter which is the ACTUAL item he seeking.

[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lighttemple_theory_medal.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:The next five are just a ''bit'' harder...]]

** In ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess Twilight Princess]]'', Link and Midna must reunite the four fragments of the Mirror of Twilight in order to enter Zant's whereabouts. The first fragment, luckily, is still in the Mirror when they find it broken, so they only have to look for three more.
** Also in ''Twilight Princess'', Midna is already wearing the first piece of the four Fused Shadows when the player meets her.

The work you're in has a writer, of course. In this case, the writer knows that a handy way to structure a plot is to present it as a quest for a [[PlotCoupon certain number of special items]]. But your heart may sink when you receive what looks like the Grocery List from Hell -- find the Four Stars of Virtue, slay the Six Dragons of Deceit, win a kiss from all Fifteen Maidens of Dubious Intent... You know, slaying even ''one'' Dragon of Deceit could be the plot of an entire adventure. And what does a Maiden of Dubious Intent look like, anyway?

* Earlier arcs of ''Manga/DragonBall'', for the most part, revolves around looking for the Dragon Balls. But at the start of the first arc, Son Goku already has one and Bulma meets him having ''two'', making the quest much easier already. After Shenron is summoned and the corresponding wish is granted, the Dragon Balls scatter across the world after granting a wish, making finding them again harder.
* Downplayed in ''Manga/InuYasha''. Kagome already has the Shikon pearl inside her at the start of the series, but after some unsavory events it is fragmented into several pieces, scattered through Feudal Japan. Thus the objective is to retrieve them, and the first of them is held by a very powerful opponent, negating the trope entirely.

** It's revealed that the heroines needed to obtain all seven Prism Stones...which meant they needed to get five back from the bad guys, to go with the two they already had.
** A year later, they had to search for twelve of something called "Heartiels." They had absolutely no idea what that meant until the first one turned up on her own and introduced herself.

* In ''VideoGame/StarFoxAdventures'', a character tells Krystal that the Krazoa Spirits are the only beings capable of bringing an end to the war that is wounding the population of planet Sauria. He even tells her that the shrine guarding the first Krazoa Spirit is a few steps on her right side.

* Mario's goal in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'' is to retrieve the Grand Stars that fuel the Comet Observatory built by Rosalina. Luckily for him, the first of these Stars is the only one that isn't guarded by any of the bosses, in fact its power hasn't been fully used yet. Also a case of BackFromTheBrink.
* In ''VideoGame/LuigisMansionDarkMoon'', the titular [[RestrainingBolt Dark Moon]] is shattered into 6 pieces by [[ItsPersonal a vengeance-seeking King Boo]], who then entrusts 5 of the shards to 5 [[DemonicPossession Possessor ghosts]] each. When Dark Moon shards are collected and purified, the fog that fell over Evershade Valley after the Dark Moon's destruction lightens up to reveal the next area where the other shard is. Thank goodness one of the shards landed near E. Gadd's Bunker to get the adventure started.

* In ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong64'', K. Rool orders his minions to steal the Golden Bananas from DK's Banana Hoard so he's distarcted finding them while K. Rool buys time to repair the Blas-O-Matic and use it to destroy DK Isles. To make matters worse, the worlds where the Bananas were placed are guarded by B. Locker, who won't allow the Kongs to enter if they don't have the necessary amount of Golden Bananas. Fortunately, the first world (Jungle Japes) only requires one Golden Banana, which can be collected easily when the lobby leading to the world's entrance is opened.

** In all games, Jigsaw Pieces as [=MacGuffins=]. In the first game, they are required to complete magical pictures that open the levels they portray. Who tells the title characters about this? ''[[LiveItem The first Jigsaw Piece]]'', of course, which is found at the entrance lobby of Gruntilda's Lair.

* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChroniclesX'' has the Blood Lobster sidequest, where the main character has to find 99 lobster-shaped toys stuffed with explosives, scattered all around New Los Angeles. Why 99 and not 100? Because Rook manages to spot one and throw it away before it explodes in his hands (as the culprit planned to kill them ''before the start of the collection'').

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lighttemple_theory_medal.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:The next five are a ''bit'' harder...]]

* Played straight in ''VideoGame/SkiesOfArcadia'', but you don't actually find out until more than halfway through the game. When Fina joins the party, she says that her quest is to find the six Moon Crystals, but she doesn't mention that one of them is already accounted for until you've collected four of them.

** ''Banjo-Tooie'' similarly has Jingaling explain Jiggies to the protagonists while handing them the first one of that particular game.
* Largely averted in ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' games, where Link has to traverse through a dungeon and other places before gaining the first of the PlotCoupon items. However, there are a few exceptions:

* Played with in all ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime'' games; each of them involves a PlotCoupon hunt, but it doesn't begin until about mid-way through the game.
** In the first game, the first of twelve artifacts can be found at the Artifact Temple you need to bring them all to in the first place.
** ''Echoes'' takes it further, as one of the ten keys needed to access the final area is already in its lock thanks to the efforts of a long-deceased Luminoth warrior, so Samus only needs to find nine. And one of those nine keys lies close to its required destination, needing little effort to find it; namely, its location is the DarkWorld version of [[spoiler:Samus's landing site]].
** In ''Corruption'', you're instead hunting Energy Cells to restore power as you go to portions of a derelict space vessel; conveniently, a wrecked fighter is crashed in its docking bay, with its Energy Cell having fallen out for you to grab and use right away.
** ''Hunters'' downplays this trope. The whereabouts of the first Octolith are found at the start of the game, but like all other Octoliths it's guarded by a boss that must be defeated.