History Main / HeartContainer

* Collecting 3 gold rings in ''StarFox'' 64 increases your life bar... until you lose a life or finish the level. Collecting 3 gold rings with an extended life bar grants an extra life.

* WarioLand Shake It had heart vessels with this purpose, which you had the chance to buy after each world/boss battle was completed.

* ''Alundra'' has crystals as your life force. Huge ones added one more.
** [[{{Alundra 2}} The second game]] has heart rings which grow your HP meter. Then there are orbs that do the same to your EP (magic) meter.

* Every level of SuperMarioBros2 has two Mushrooms hidden in subspace; these function as Heart Containers, but their effect only lasts till you beat the level.

[[SortingAlgorithmOfEvil Games get more difficult as they go on.]] This is nigh-on universal. But when the EliteMooks start dishing out [[FixedDamageAttack epic levels of hurt]], what's a poor hero to do? Well, they could [[LevelGrinding Level Grind]]-- if they were in an RPG. But they're in a PlatformGame or some other variety of ActionGame! Experience points are [[RPGElements (almost)]] unheard of! {{Status Buff}}s are equally uncommon! {{Healing Potion}}s and HealthFood are dropped ''maybe'' once a level! What now? Enter the HeartContainer--a well-hidden, but oh-so-rewarding, item that permanently increases the LifeMeter of the lucky [[AnAdventurerIsYou adventurer]] who finds it. Even games that don't have well-defined "stats," like Attack or Defense, can feature {{Heart Container}}s-- lots of games do have {{Life Meter}}s, after all, and the ability to [[CriticalExistenceFailure take more hits without vaporizing]] is always a nice reward. It can even aleviate the pain of [[SurpriseDifficulty later levels]] somewhat.

{{Heart Container}}s usually come as a reward for doing something "big," like defeating a [[BossBattle boss]] or completing a [[ThatOneSidequest big ol' sidequest]]. Sometimes, they're just well hidden in the game world itself, inviting the player to search every nook and cranny for these valuable items. If they're too hard to find, it can lead to a GuideDangIt, and if they're too challenging to get, it can lead to UnstableEquilibrium. Some games use a "Piece of Heart" variant, where a player must collect X fragments of a certain item in order to gain the health boost. In games with icon-shaped {{Life Meter}}s, it's highly likely that these life-giving {{MacGuffin}}s will be shaped like their display counterpart (such as, uh, [[HeartsAreHealth hearts]]).

** [[MetroidOtherM Metroid: Other M]] has Pieces of Heart as well. I mean, Energy Parts.

{{Heart Container}}s usually come as a reward for doing something "big," like defeating a [[BossBattle boss]] or completing a [[ThatOneSidequest big ol' sidequest]]. Sometimes, they're just well hidden in the game world itself, inviting the player to search every nook and cranny for these valuable items. If they're too hard to find, it can lead to a GuideDangIt, and if they're too challenging to get, it can lead to UnstableEquilibrium. Some games use a "Piece of Heart" variant, where a player must collect X fragments of a certain item in order to gain the health boost. In games with icon-shaped {{Life Meter}}s, it's highly likely that these life-giving {{MacGuffin}}s will be shaped like their display counterpart.

Heart containers are a specific form of RareCandy. Not to be confused with {{Soul Jar}}, which can sometimes literally be a heart in a container.

!!Examples

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[[SortingAlgorithmOfEvil Games get more difficult as they go on.]] This is nigh-on universal. But when the EliteMooks start dishing out [[OneThousandNeedles epic levels of hurt]], what's a poor hero to do? Well, they could [[LevelGrinding Level Grind]]-- if they were in an RPG. But they're in a PlatformGame or some other variety of ActionGame! Experience points are [[RPGElements (almost)]] unheard of! {{Status Buff}}s are equally uncommon! {{Healing Potion}}s and HealthFood are dropped ''maybe'' once a level! What now? Enter the HeartContainer--a well-hidden, but oh-so-rewarding, item that permanently increases the LifeMeter of the lucky [[AnAdventurerIsYou adventurer]] who finds it. Even games that don't have well-defined "stats," like Attack or Defense, can feature {{Heart Container}}s-- lots of games do have {{Life Meter}}s, after all, and the ability to [[CriticalExistenceFailure take more hits without vaporizing]] is always a nice reward. It can even aleviate the pain of [[SurpriseDifficulty later levels]] somewhat.

** The very first game had 4 full containers in very well hidden areas and the second game repeated this again, but the idea got scrapped in all future games.
*** Five for the first game, actually. One was found outside, and four were a choice between a Container and a red potion. The second game did have four full {{Heart Container}}s.
*** The first game's second quest also featured a few old men that could take one full container away if you couldn't pay their price. Yes, the second quest was {{Nintendo Hard}}, why do you ask?

** While [=LttP=] introduced the quarter HeartContainer, there were also several full ones in the game, though most of them were collected from bosses.
*** All them were collected from bosses except for the very first one, which is in a chest in Sanctuary. This was repeated in Minish Cap, where one very obscure {{Side Quest}} gave you a full {{Heart Container}} instead of the usual partial ones.

* The NES's woefully overlooked Startropics series had this. Your max health, represented by hearts, usually increased automatically after clearing a boss. However, there were a rare few Heart Containers scattered around the game, which you could find fairly easily if you were thorough enough. Additionally, if you had less than the maximum, 22 Hearts, picking up a Vitamin-Z capsule would bring your health to the max, though it would slowly decrease to your maximum over time.
* In Bionic Commando, while there weren't "Heart Containers" per se, picking up enough "bullets" that the enemy dropped when killed would increase your Max HP by 1 block, until your health topped out, at which point they would do nothing.

* The NES's woefully overlooked Startropics series had this. Your max health, represented by hearts, usually increased automatically after clearing a boss. However, there were a rare few Heart Containers scattered around the game, which you could find fairly easily if you were thorough enough. Additionally, if you had less than the maximum, 16 Hearts, picking up a Vitamin-Z capsule would bring your health to the max, though it would slowly decrease to your maximum over time.

*** Five for the first game, actually. Two were found or given, and three were a choice between a Container and a red potion. The second game did have four full {{Heart Container}}s.

*** Five for the first game, actually. Three were found or given, and two were a choice between a Container and a red potion. The second game did have four full {{Heart Container}}s.

* ''BraveFencerMusashi'' has Minku, who are like HeartContainers that you have to chase and throw. They look kind of like rabbits with blue ears, and can only be found at night.

[[TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Heart_Container.png]]

* ''BraveFencerMusashi'' has Minku, who are like HeartContainers that you have to chase and throw. They look kind of like rabbits with blue ears, and can only be found at night, although [[{{Aryn}} This Troper]] has seen them as late as 10:00.

* Each of the ''LegacyOfKain'' games had something like this to extend your health: ''Blood Omen'' let you find blood vials that increased your health, and as it turned out, there were more of them than you could actually use. ''Soul Reaver'' had special wedge-shaped power ups, and every five would boost your health, while ''Soul Reaver 2'' gave you an upgrade every time you activated a Reaver forge. ''Blood Omen 2'' gave you an upgrade when you drank enough blood. ThisTroper doesn't remember the exact mechanism for it, but is sure there was something similar in ''Defiance''.

* Collecting 3 gold rings in ''StarFox'' 64 increases your life bar... for the duration of the level. Collecting another 3 gold rings in the same level after that grants an extra life.

* ''NinjaGaiden'' has this with Life of the Thousand Gods and Life of the Gods.

** Don't forget the HP Memory in ''BattleNetwork'' and ''[[MegaManStarForce Star Force]]''. They are justified in the sense that every [=NetNavi=] is like a computer antivirus. So when its memory for storing HP increases...
** Also in Mega Man X5 and X6, you can find injured Maverick Hunters scattered through stages who occasionally have life-ups that will increase your max health, and even parts that can be equipped to act as full energy tanks.

* The ''MegaMan'' series has Sub-tanks, which are effectively whole spare life meters which can be drained to fill the real one, and Heart Tanks in the ''[[MegaManX X]]'' series, which add a small boost to your maximum health, and some Cyber-Elves in the ''[[MegaManZero Zero]]'' series which could increase your maximum health at the cost of your rank. The ''[[MegaManZX ZX]]'' series adds more standard Heart and weapon energy containers.
** Before that, there were E-Tanks in the original Mega Man classic games from Mega Man 2 on (except 8, where it was replaced with Rush dropping random powerups). While sometimes these were just handed out, other times you needed a weapon to access it or do some alternate death course. But then you could just buy them.

* ''ResidentEvil 4'' had Yellow Herbs.

* Action-packed multiplayer games like ''{{Quake}}'', ''{{Unreal}}'' and ''{{Halo}}'' also have special items that temporarily boost your various health meters beyond their normal limits. ''Quake'' and ''Halo'' even go so far as to continually whittle away at any health ?over the brim? in order to discourage cowardly playstyles.

** The original PrinceOfPersia had giant potion bottles that functioned like this in mostly hidden areas; you could get from 3 hearts to 9 over the course of the game. Interestingly, at one point your [[EnemyWithout Shadow]] steals one of these from under your nose - but when you merge back with him later, you get the extra life point ''then''.

** Don't forget the HP Memory in ''BattleNetwork'' and ''[[MegaManStarForce Star Force]]''. They are justified in the sense that every [=NetNavi=] is like a computer antivirus. So when its memory for storing HP increases... SoYeah.