History Main / StarterEquipment

In many {{RPG}}s, TheHero's quest is a long one fraught with danger. So naturally whatever you're doing, you'll want the best equipment available at any given moment, and so most games will [[RuleOfFun deliver]]. Your average RPG hero (and their party) will come to wield axes of [[DishingOutDirt stone]], swing {{Flaming Sword}}s, carry staffs that allow them to [[SummonMagic summon the very gods]], draw bows crafted by reclusive masters in their field and deck themselves in the hides of legendary beasts and metals [[{{Unobtanium}} dug from far beneath the earth]] or [[ThunderboltIron beyond the stars]].

...but you still need to start somewhere. Enter this trope; the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin default equipment from the start of the game]].

Generally speaking there's a few things you can expect from this default equipment;

* It will either be the most basic item you can buy in the first shop you find, or completely unique (but still useless when you find something else).
** In the later case it might be more useful, or at least [[MagikarpPower hanging on to it]] will get you the InfinityPlusOneSword.
* If the game feels ''really'' generous you might even get a few basic StandardRPGItems in your inventory.
* Weapons will be the default type for the character's [[AnAdventurerIsYou class]].
* If there is more than one type of armour slot (outside of just "armour" for example for helms, gloves, accessories) then expect the more advanced ones to simply be empty. If you start off without a weapon, this may well be the only point in the game [[StuckItems where you don't have one equipped]].

Characters that join later in the game don't count since they always have generic equipment for that level (or even better equipment if you're lucky). Sometimes, at the beginning of the game, you'll be given [[ATasteOfPower something better]] to use before this trope catches up with you. Keep in mind that items that aren't upgraded or replaced as the game goes on and just serve to introduce game mechanics are not this trope, since they only act as an in universe explanation for that ability (so healing items which you'll be able to buy better versions of count, as do equipable items, but a PDA you're given that serves as your pause menu or a pair of gloves that enable VideoGameStealing but are never replaced or upgraded does not).

In most RealTimeStrategy games with a campaign mode, the first mission features one or two basic types of troops and may not even feature your WorkerUnit. In {{Mons}} games, the equivalent is the StarterMon.

* In ''[[VideoGame/DeadTrigger Dead Trigger 2]]'', Kyle, the player character, is equipped with a CZ 75 and a Wrench, along with the submachine gun [=MP5K=] from the Gunsmith, which can fend off zombies in the earlier stages of the game, but become utterly useless in later stages as the virus mutates and makes zombies stronger and the player unlocks stronger weapons.
* ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' provides you with "stock" weapons for each class, which are all the most basic and balanced weapons of their types. They're also the only items available if the Item Server is down or your client can't connect to Platform/{{Steam}}. Their actual usefulness varies; while some are considered useless compared to other items (such as the Bone Saw or Fire Axe), others are dependable and powerful enough that most experienced players never use anything else (like the Stickybomb Launcher or the Minigun). There are also flashier skinned, Festive, Botkiller, and [[BlingOfWar Australium]] variants of these weapons which otherwise work identically.
* ''Videogame/PlanetSide 2'' starts the player off with a basic weapon for each weapon slot, and a shotgun that can be used on most classes. The starting weapons are typically average all-rounders, which players can replace with more specialized alternatives. Vehicles, however, start with almost nothing; the Flash ATV and ANT construction rig don't even come with weapons by default.

[[folder:Platform Game]]
* In most ''Franchise/RatchetAndClank'' games, Ratchet will start out with his basic Omniwrench, and some combination of a machine pistol, a bomb-lobbing weapon or a shotgun. Some of these have to be bought, but are usually the cheapest one in the lineup, if not the first.
* ''VideoGame/{{Starbound}}'' has the Broken Broadsword, a broadsword that deals very little damage due to being damaged and is quickly outclassed by crafted weapons. [[spoiler:Hold onto it until the end of the game and [[UltimateBlacksmith the Baron]] can repair it for you making it into the Protector's Broadsword, [[InfinityPlusOneSword one of the best weapons in the game]]]].
* In the ''VideoGame/TreasureHunterMan'' series, ''VideoGame/TreasureHunterMan1'' and ''VideoGame/TreasureHunterMan2'': The sword is the first weapon that can be acquired, and is needed to progress in the game.

* ''VideoGame/EveOnline'' has the starter Frigates you get at the beginning of the game. They're not the worst ships in the game (that would be the Shuttles), but they are a lot worse than the most basic of the "real" Frigates. If you show up at any NPC space station without a ship (i.e., just in your pod), you'll get a new one free. They can't be sold or recycled.
* The ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'' tutorials give characters two level 1 damage enhancements (basically worthless, intended to teach about slotting and combining enhancements) and two inspirations (actually from the top tier of inspirations that won't start dropping until much later). All are completely unnecessary to pass through the tutorial and some players hold on to them to sell afterward to get started buying decent equipment.
* ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' has Doran's Ring, Doran's Shield and Doran's Blade, items available at the shop for 400 or 450 - enough to start with, plus a potion or two - with stats generally helpful for magic, defense, and attack respectively. They're actually fantastic value for money, but severely hampered by the six-item limit. Some players buy nothing but Doran's items to give themselves an early edge before selling them as they get money for more effective items to take their place.

* ''VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing'' gives you starter equipment in line with your class and the game's wacky nature: a club for a seal clubber, a stolen accordion for an accordion thief, etc. The equipment is adequate for the low levels, but you'll ditch it at the first opportunity. However, your starter weapon is later required to craft an ultimate weapon for your class and complete the Nemesis sidequest, and can also be used to craft the weapon portion of the GameBreaker Smithsness gear. Luckily, the dirt-cheap "chewing gum on a string" item lets you fish up new pieces of starter gear at no turn cost.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' gives you the basic level 1 weapon of your starting class, and a set of clothes (not armour, not robes, ''clothes'') depending on your race and gender.

* ''VideoGame/{{Noita}}'' gives the same starting load-out each attempt: A basic attack wand with Magic Missile; a basic bomb with three charges of Bomb; and a Flask full of water.

* The ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' series;
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'' Cecil's dark knight gear that he has when you start the game is the weakest you can get as well as not being bought or found anywhere. It actually becomes 100% useless in the game after he class changes and gets completely different set of starting equipment. (If you don't remove your previous equipment before the class change [[SoLongAndThanksForAllTheGear your old stuff is gone forever]].)
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' gives each character their signature weapon as their starting equipment. They're all the weakest equipment in the game, but in the case of Cloud and Barret, they can't be sold since they're the iconic weapon for that character (and thus appear in cutscenes).
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'' plays this largely straight, but also includes one exception to the rule. As with most of the FF games, your starting weapons are the weakest in the game and you're encouraged to keep buying the next tier. There's even a "synthesis" mechanism, where you can combine certain pieces of old equipment to make new, more powerful pieces. But then, about two-thirds into the game, you travel to a topsy-turvy dungeon where everything is upside-down—including ''your weapons' attack values''. In this dungeon, the higher the attack power, the ''weaker'' your attacks. You can find every character's ''second''-weakest weapon in chests throughout the dungeon, but the only way to have the most powerful weapons for that dungeon is to bring along your starting equipment, which you probably sold or synthesized hours ago.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' Tidus is given a long sword before his first battle. This weapon has 0 customization slots and no bonuses, meaning that every subsequent weapon for him is better. While you can make a long sword via drops and customization it will always have 1 slot rather than 0.
*** Incidentally, the weapon was a gift from his old man. That the game actually ''encourages'' you to drop it as soon as possible gives you an idea what kind of relationship Father and Son have.
** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' Vaan and Basch's default swords cannot be bought or found. Vaan's can be dropped by Omega Mark XII.

* ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'': The Kingdom Key serves as this in games focused on Sora. Canonically, it's his personal keyblade, much like how Way to the Dawn is Riku's keyblade and Destiny's Embrace is Kairi's. Roxas, being Sora's Nobody, also has it as his default weapon in ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts358DaysOver2'', though he becomes a [[DualWielding dual wielder]] of Oathkeeper and Oblivion later on.
* In ''VideoGame/ForTheKing'', each character starts out with the beginner weapon for their class/background (a hammer for the Blacksmith, a bow for the Hunter, a spell book for the Scholar, and so on), along with one or two other items also determined by their class/background. The starter weapons are not available at any other point in the game, and usually have slightly worse stats than the most basic weapon of that type available in markets and item drops. In the lower difficulty levels, each character will also be given a few extra generic items (healing herbs, etc.).
* ''VideoGame/RuneFactory3'' has a slight twist. When you have your first battle, a weaponsmith lets you choose which starter weapon you get.

* The starter ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' count in that you can't find them anywhere else and they're all pretty basic for their types, though their final forms tend to be very powerful. All the games also start you off with some of the most basic type of Pokeball (although you'll be buying them for a while at least anyway) and a Potion (which needs to be withdrawn from the player's item storage PC in some games).
* In ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2'', every class starts with nothing but basic unenchanted armor of the heaviest type a character of this class can equip of level 1. The Favored Soul class, added in ''Mask of the Betrayer'' but available for the vanilla campaign too, starts with a unique, fancy-looking suit of armor named "Favored Soul's Outfit"... which has exactly the same stats as regular chainmail, and thus quickly gets obsolete.
* Each of ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' ten classes has their own unique starter set, with some of them having otherwise hard to obtain items. Because of MagikarpPower, a good portion of those items are feasible endgame equipment.
** Thieves start with the Master Key, which opens certain doors that would otherwise require a key and some that have no proper key. This can also be chosen as a 'gift' by other classes. Other gifts include the unique 'Old Witch's Ring' (which [[spoiler:allows you to talk to the Daughter of Chaos that leads the Chaos Covenant]]), a ring that grants a small increase in HP, and the Pendant [[spoiler:that does absolutely nothing]].
* The ''Diablo'' franchise:
** Poor ''VideoGame/DiabloII'' characters, they don't get any armor, just a class-appropriate weapon: the Barbarian, a hand axe; the Paladin, a short sword, the Amazon, a stack of javelins, the Sorceress, a staff of +1 Fire Bolt, the Necromancer, a wand of +1 Summon Skeleton, the Assassin, a katar, and the Druid, a club. Some of them also get a buckler. It should be noted, however, that these items are flagged as being Starter items, which means they always cost exactly 1 gold to repair. Not that it helps, since you're probably gonna change them for something better before repairing them is a necessity.
** ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'' isn't much kinder to its Nephalem. The Barbarian starts off with a handaxe, the Demon Hunter starts off with a hand crossbow, the Crusader starts with a flail and a shield, the Monk starts off with a knuckleduster, the Wizard starts off with a wand, and the Witch Doctor starts off with a ceremonial knife. None of them start off with anything in the way of non-cosmetic armor, but thankfully, this state of affairs doesn't persist for long.

* ''Franchise/{{Persona}}'' games generally start a character off with their school uniform or other everyday clothes and a weak (possibly improvised) weapon scrounged up somewhere - [[WeaponJr stolen from a school club]], [[WithThisHerring provided by your mysterious benefactors]], whatever:
** The original ''Videogame/Persona1'' has the characters fight through the first dungeon using whatever they can find in a standard hospital room (aside from the one guy carrying an axe).
** ''VideoGame/Persona4'', starts you out with a cheap golf club Yosuke picked up after the replica katana he first offered got confiscated by the cops.
** ''VideoGame/Persona5'' invokes. When the characters awaken to their Personas, not only are they granted their outfits, but also their weapons of choice. The items' descriptions even mention them manifesting in response to awakening their personas.
* ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'' starts you off with a scalpel stolen from a nearby table and nothing else, while your first party member is a floating skull who only has the teeth he originally died with. Fortunately you can replace those very soon with a little scrounging and some side quests (yes, even the teeth).
* ''VideoGame/{{Transistor}}'': The game starts off with the Crash() and Breach() Functions equipped.
* The ''Xenoblade'' series:
** The first game, ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1'', starts Shulk off with the Scrap Sword. The item's description pretty much admits it's a piece of crap he put together himself just to fend off any aggressive wildlife, and it gets replaced with the [[SwordOfPlotAdvancement Monado]] before long.
** ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'' starts Rex off with some rusted-out sword he uses to fend off any aggressive wildlife he manages to pull up in his salvaging attempts, and it's replaced with [[EmpathicWeapon Pyra's]] [[SwordOfPlotAdvancement Aegis Sword]] before long.
** ''VideoGame/XenobladeChroniclesX'' gives [[PlayerCharacter Rook]] a set of basic equipment every time s/he changes class out of thin air if there's nothing suitable in his/her inventory. This isn't worth trying to exploit, though - not only are these bottom-tier, bog-standard weapons obsolete by the end of the tutorial, they don't sell for much.

* ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'' makes your acquisition of starter weapons a plot point in itself. When you gain control of the future Inquisitor, they are unarmed and, in fact, being escorted under guard as a suspected mass-murderer. As you come under attack by demons, however, your armed escort, Cassandra, instructs you to stay back while she deals with them. At this point, you have no choice but to grab a weapon from the nearby pile (conveniently matching the skills you picked at character creation) and help her out. As soon as that's over, Cassandra demands that you drop it again, but a bit of reasoning makes her stop being so LawfulStupid.
* The first (real) weapon you start out with in ''VideoGame/StarOceanTillTheEndOfTime'' is a simple sword synthesized from the rescue pod's computer, which is necessary because you crash-landed in a backwater planet, and convenient for Fayt since he knows how to swing it around by playing virtual games. The actual first weapon you get is a Metal Pipe, an {{improvised weapon}} which Fayt picked up to defend himself from enemy drones. One of the Battle Trophies requires you to beat the final boss with said Metal Pipe, ''and'' the second-to-last {{Superboss}}, a feat made possible thanks to the game's [[EquipmentUpgrade Synthesis]] system.
* ''VideoGame/FantasyLife'' has every single player start with basic street clothes and dagger. Getting started in each job will grant the player a starting uniform. The street clothes are a staple of both the clothing shop in the FirstTown and the tailor job, but the starting uniform can only be purchased in the semi-secret shop corresponding to each job.
* ''VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}}'' drops the classes from previous Creator/FromSoftware games in favour of just choosing a "background" to determine the PlayerCharacter's stats. You begin with the clothes the PC is wearing as armour and nothing else after character creation. After the first checkpoint (or more likely, death; this is a [[NintendoHard FS game]], after all), you choose your starting weapon and firearm.
* ''VideoGame/LordsOfTheFallen'' has different starting equipment for each of the three classes. You can also find each set early on in Keystone.
* ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' plays with this trope, just like it does with every other one found in [=RPGs=]. Your starting equipment consists of a stick and a bandage, and while they are and remain the weakest combat gear in the game, the bandage, once taken off, becomes a one-time consumable item that restores HitPoints (as a bandage should), while the stick turns out to be a recurring quest item that can be used to resolve many battles non-violently--particularly [[GoFetch when fighting canines]]. FridgeBrilliance all around.

* The ''VideoGame/BoxxyQuest'' series always starts Catie off with a Byte Staff and a Mooninites T-Shirt, but the headgear is different between games:
** ''VideoGame/BoxxyQuestTheShiftedSpires'': The headgear is a Black Headband.
** ''VideoGame/BoxxyQuestTheGatheringStorm'': The headgear is Catie's Tiara.
* ''VideoGame/SomaSpirits'': Heart starts off with his Joy Baton, and gets a Spirit Guard and Bronze Ring before leaving his house, but it's not required to put it on to leave.
* ''VideoGame/OracleOfAskigaga'': Each character gets a set:
** Hiroji Askigaga starts off with a Saber and Leather Armor.
** Oharu Ishihara starts off with a Iron Spear and Ring Mail.

* ''VideoGame/TheOtherRosiesRoadOfLove'': Rosie starts the game with, a Small Dagger, a Traveller's Coat and Shoes, and Item and {{Monster Compendium}}s, called Item and Monster Book.
* The ''VideoGame/OfPenAndPaper'' series:
** ''VideoGame/KnightsOfPenAndPaper'': Based on Class, and but they don't have any statistical benefit, just to ensure the players are not performing a FullFrontalAssault. For example, Clerics start with a Mace and Robe.
** ''VideoGame/KnightsOfPenAndPaper2'': Playing the Tutorial battle gives a Carrot, but can be skipped, which exchanges that for having no damage for the first Main Quest fight.
* ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'': Lloyd's starting weapon is a pair of wooden swords. You get a title if you don't swap them out until about halfway through the game.

* ''VideoGame/{{Starcraft}}'':
** In [[VideoGame/{{Starcraft}} the first game]], the Terran campaign begins with just basic Marines and [=SCVs=], the Zerg campaign with Zerglings, Hydralisks, and support units, and the Protoss with a handful of Zealots.
** Averted however in ''Brood War'', where each campaign begins with a moderate selection of units, although only the Terran intro features a base. This is because the player is expected to have played the original; ''Brood War'' is an expansion, after all.
** ''[[VideoGame/StarcraftIIWingsOfLiberty Wings of Liberty]]'': the first ''three'' missions give you exactly ''one'' offensive unit (the Marine), in addition to introducing workers, Medics, and the various features of your base.
** ''[[VideoGame/StarcraftIIHeartOfTheSwarm Heart of the Swarm]]'' follows suit. The first three missions use the Zergling as their sole offensive unit aside from [[HeroUnit Kerrigan and Raynor]] (and the Queens, which have a modest ability to defend themselves but are mostly support).

* In ''VideoGame/{{XCOM}}'' your first base starts with a little bit of almost everything you can purchase at the beginning. Depending on your style of play either much or all of it is near-useless. Fortunately, the starting enemies are so weak, you can survive.

* ''VideoGame/BattleTech''
** The story campaign starts the player with a small but useful array of starter equipment and crew. You have one each of the Gunnery, Guts, and Tactics-trained pilots as your default lance, with a backup pilot with a lead on Piloting skills. Similarly, you have four fairly decent 'Mechs in your starting lance, which includes three JackOfAllStats designs (the Vindicator, the Blackjack, and the Shadow Hawk) and one high speed recon unit (the Spider). The game anticipates you'll get the Spider wrecked, and gives you a dinky but usable backup Locust 'Mech, just in case.
** The free-play career mode is considerably less generous. Players will have to start with a much smaller weight range of units (often with no medium 'Mechs at all) and their starting pilots will generally have skill blocks of 9 or 10. For reference, the lowest possible skill block for starting pilots is 8. Good luck getting through the EarlyGameHell if you're playing on the higher difficulties.
* ''VideoGame/LiEat'': In the first game:
** Leo: Knife, Liar, Long Red Coat, Diamond Ornaments
** Efina: Small Cookie, Blue Dress, Blue Earmuffs

* In ''Videogame/{{Warframe}}'', new players are given a choice of three Warframes ([[MasterSwordsman Excalibur]], [[ShockAndAwe Volt]], and [[MagnetismManipulation Mag]]), a sword/staff/powerfist, secondary one-handed weapon(s) and a primary two-handed weapon. The weapons are all "[=MK1=]" variants, which are weaker than the standard versions, while the Warframes are the normal versions. During the first mission, players unlock "Damaged" versions of some vital weapon and warframe mods, which are cheaper to equip but cannot be upgraded as much as the normal mods acquired through gameplay.

* In the ''[[Videogame/{{X}} X-Universe]]'' series, each game has MultipleGameOpenings which change your starting equipment. Typically, the game gives you either a M5 [[FragileSpeedster Scout]] starship or a TS [[SpaceTrucker Transport-Small]], a small amount of money, and a few weapons. The first game, ''Videogame/XBeyondTheFrontier'' was [[EarlyGameHell infamous for its pathetic starting equipment]] - no weapons, next to no shields, and most annoyingly, no [[YearOutsideHourInside singularity engine time accelerator]] to make the long travel times bearable. Later games offer more starting equipment, such as ''X3: Terran Conflict'' having two starts with a M4+ heavy interceptor and a good array of weapons.
* Averted in ''VideoGame/{{Unturned}}''. You're naked and unarmed during a ZombieApocalypse. Have fun.
* In ''Videogame/SpaceEngineers'', each [[MultipleGameOpenings game world]] starts you off with different equipment, though each gives you the basic tools (a welder, grinder, and drill). The "Crashed Red Ship" start, for example, spawns you in a partially wrecked ship; early versions required you to cannibalize the ship to build refineries and other essential equipment, though the modern version has most equipment intact.
* ''Videogame/FromTheDepths'''s "Quest for Neter" campaign starts the player out with a small amount of resources, an extremely primitive and inefficient motorboat, and a basic fortress with some resource extractors, a radar array, and repair tentacles.

* ''VideoGame/TerraTech'': Players start out with incredibly weak Little Trekker wheels and a low-powered [[AKA47 ZK-74]] machine gun, which are good enough to gather a few blocks but useless compared even to other early-game equipment.

* ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'': Turning on the bonus chest option when creating a world spawns a chest surrounded by torches next to the player which is filled with a random assortment of base equipment and resources. This can include wood, low-level tools, a small amount of food, some saplings, and crop seeds.
* ''VideoGame/EscapeVelocity'': All three games started the player off in that game's iteration of the Shuttle ship with its default configuration (nothing in Classic's case, a single basic energy weapon in ''Override'' and ''Nova'') and some money. From ''Nova'' on, the engine had the capability of allowing the player to select different starting "characters" with potentially different starting locations, ship and money (or even ''story''), but the unmodded game didn't use it.

* Deckbuilding games (from [[TropeMaker genre launcher]] ''TabletopGame/{{Dominion}}'' onward) typically have each player begin with a deck of low-powered cards and acquire more powerful cards as the game progresses.
** For example, the deckbuilding game ''TabletopGame/HeroRealms'' has the player start with low powered Dagger and Shortsword cards, and a low-paying Ruby and a handful of Gold. Character Decks provide different Weapons based on Class. For example, the Thief has Throwing Daggers: not very useful alone, but when used with other Throwing Daggers does additional damage.
* If [[Blog/ThingsMrWelchIsNoLongerAllowedToDoInAnRPG Mr. Welch]] is the party's canine officer, he's not allowed to spend his starter cash on ten chihuahuas.
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'', firearms are [[FantasyGunControl extremely expensive, difficult to use, and cannot be crafted with the Craft skill]]. As such, the [[TheGunslinger Gunslinger]] class receives a free "battered firearm" at character creation so that they can actually ''use a gun'' without having to wait multiple levels to buy one first. This weapon is unreliable in the hands of other characters, [[ObviousRulePatch worthless if sold]], and the gunslinger can upgrade it into a masterwork weapon (paying only the cost of the masterwork bonus) instead of needing a new firearm to replace it.

* ''TabletopGame/AnimaBeyondFantasy'' gives depending of your social class equipment plus more or less money, the highest ones --high nobility and burguesy, which must be purchased on character creation, offering way more gear which often include even ''very'' expensive weapons and armor and other luxurious stuff as fine clothes, thoroughbred horses, etc. Given the low emphasis of the game on magic objects, said gear is able to support a character for many levels.

* In ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' all classes, with the exception of Death Knights (since they start the game at a higher level), start with some basic low quality items and in many cases a cosmetic shirt. Said shirts used to only be available through character creation (or by buying or trading from another player) until a vendor selling them was added in the game in the first expansion. Death Knight gear is high quality and unique, although there is some higher level gear with the same models.

* ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' provides you with "stock" weapons for each class, which are all the most basic and balanced weapons of their types. They're also the only items available if the Item Server is down or your client can't connect to UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}. Their actual usefulness varies; while some are considered useless compared to other items (such as the Bone Saw or Fire Axe), others are dependable and powerful enough that most experienced players never use anything else (like the Stickybomb Launcher or the Minigun). There are also flashier skinned, Festive, Botkiller, and [[BlingOfWar Australium]] variants of these weapons which otherwise work identically.

* ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaHarmonyOfDissonance'': Juste starts the game wearing only JB's Bracelet, which gives no stats.

** The first game, ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1'', starts Shulk off with the Scrap Sword. The item's description pretty much admits it's a piece of crap he put together himself just to fend off any aggressive wildlife, and it gets replaced with the SwordOfPlotAdvancement before long.

* Veredicto, [[EpicFlail the Flail]], is slow-striking, but covers a wide arc, does a lot of damage, can potentially hit twice in one strike, and has a higher chance to stun enemies. It's the only weapon that can't block, but has its elemental affinity unlocked by default; the parry button instead causes it to [[FlamingWeapon burst into flames]], draining [[{{Mana}} Fervor]] whilst adding Fire damage. It can be used to ring bells that summon temporary platforms and unlock puzzle doors. If not selected at the start of the game, it can be found in the Sacred Entombments.

* ''VideoGame/{{Crysalis}}'': The game starts with only Mio]], and he has an Extract, "Extract Life", that "Slightly recovers Mio's [[HitPoints HP]]" for 25 [[{{Mana}} CP]].