History Main / TooAwesomeToUse

** On the other hand, the two ''Bismarck''-class were a good demonstration of the Fleet In Being concept, an aversion of this trope. The idea is a fleet which harms the enemy by its mere existence, as the enemy will have to devote more resources to countering every way the ships ''might'' be used than it costs to [[WinsByDoingAbsolutelyNothing build the ships and have them do nothing]]. The force that ultimately defeated ''Bismarck'' consisted of an aircraft carrier (''Ark Royal'', with the carrier ''Victorious'' putting in an earlier appearance but failing to damage the battleship or participate in the final action), two battleships (''Rodney'' and ''King George V''), one battlecruiser (''Reknown''), two heavy cruisers (''London'' and ''Norfolk''), a light cruiser (''Sheffield'') and eight destroyers (including one very cheeky Polish destroyer, ORP ''Piorun'', that engaged ''Bismarck'' at point-blank range while using its signal lamp to flash 'I am a Pole'), and that's not counting the force that intercepted her at Denmark Straight, where ''Hood'' was sunk and ''Prince of Wales'' damaged. Meanwhile, ''Tirpitz'' cost the Allies'' multiple flights of bombers over Norway, and a scare about her showing up forced the arctic convoy PQ-17 to scatter, leaving them easy pickings for the other German forces that were ''actually'' in the area.

* ''VideoGame/{{Painkiller}}'' has the Black Tarot system where you equip two passive bonuses and three bonuses that are only effective when you activate them. A player may ask themselves if the situation is really desperate enough to justify using the equipped temporary bonuses but fortuately, there are cards that you may equip if you want to make the system more flexible. One passive option lets you activate your bonuses up the ''three'' times per level (this one can easily break the game!) and another can be equipped in your temporary bonus slow to extend the time of your temporary card by an additional twenty seconds (on top of the baseline thirty seconds). Thus, in an inversion of this trope, a player may find their tarot cards "too awesome to ignore". That being said, unlocking some of the cards requires that you complete some very difficult challenges.

** ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4Remake'' features the CQBR. It's a fully-automatic American-style black assault rifle, and while it can shred basically any enemy with only a short burst of fire, it still uses rifle ammo; which is intended for single-shot weapons and parcelled out accordingly, leaving you with 4-5 rounds per drop on average. Beyond the initial clip and the spare ammo you gain from capacity upgrades, you'll hardly ever have the ammunition spare to fire it at full-auto.

* Shortly before World War I, Britain and Germany began bulking up their navy fleet with a new class of powerful battleships called "Dreadnoughts". By the time the war started, both sides had dozens of them. However, the Dreadnoughts were so valuable that neither side was willing to risk them by putting them out to sea. Both sides mainly used them as a deterrent against the other, using their mere presence as a way to keep the other side from risking theirs. Only once during the entire war did Dreadnoughts fight each other, at the Battle of Jutland in 1916. No Dreadnought from either side was sunk by enemy cannon fire or torpedoes during the entire war, though one of them, ''HMS Audacious'', was sunk by a mine in 1914.

* The sister ships ''Bismarck'' and ''Tirpitz'' were supposed to be unsinkable invincible killing machines. In any event, they were both insanely expensive assets. However, the ''Bismarck'' did not survive her maiden voyage, demonstrating that the class was neither unsinkable nor invincible (though she did destroy HMS ''Hood'' before being taken down, so she did accomplish something). They did, of course, remain insanely expensive and the loss of the ''Bismarck'' was a huge blow. Exacerbated by the destruction of the only Atlantic dry-dock big enough to take her in the Saint Nazaire raid, it simply became too risky to put the only surviving ''Bismarck''-class ship in harm's way and she spent most of the rest of war uselessly patrolling the Norwegian fjords. The ''Tirpitz'' was sunk by air attack when an earthquake bomb direct hit pierced through the vessel and detonated under it, breaking the keel and sending it under at the shallow waters it was stuck in for most of the war.
** On the other hand ''Tirpitz'' is partial subversion of this trope. While it was never actually used, the mere presence of ship in Norway forced Allies to be able to counter it if it was to leave its mooring, tying up tremendous resources in the process. On one occasion a false info of ''Tirpitz'' leaving forced the convoy PQ 17 to scatter, making it easy pickings for other German forces. The ship is considered as perfect example of Fleet in Being - a force that harms enemy by its existence alone, without the need to actually act.

** ''The Binding Blade'' actually '''forces''' this behavior. You have access to the game's ultimate weapons very early, but they have few uses, and in order to get the [[GoldenEnding best ending]] they all need to be intact by the time you beat the BigBad. Even though you technically CAN use them 1/3 of the way through the game, most players won't until the very end.

*** Many other Manaketes have similar downsides. Fa in ''The Binding Blade'' has only ''thirty'' uses on her Dragonstone, meaning she tends to run dry pretty darn quickly if she's used with any regularity.

* Shortly before World War I, Britain and Germany began bulking up their navy fleet with a new class of powerful battleships called "Dreadnoughts". By the time the war started, both sides had dozens of them. However, the Dreadnoughts were so valuable that neither side was willing to risk them by putting them out to sea. Both sides mainly used them as a deterrent against the other, using their mere presence as a way to keep the other side from risking theirs. Only once during the entire war did Dreadnoughts fight each other, at the Battle of Jutland in 1916. No Dreadnought from either side was sunk by enemy cannon fire or torpedoes during the entire war, though one of them, the ''HMS Audacious'', was sunk by a mine in 1914.
* The famous [[UsefulNotes/KatanasOfTheRisingSun Japanese]] heavy battleships ''Yamato'' and ''Musashi'' had this problem. Though incredibly powerful assets, the IJN had a very specific view of their role; being the main hitting power in a ''Kantai Kessen'', a massive surface engagement that would decide the war after Japan had whittled away America's more vulnerable assets like carriers, submarines, and destroyers. Sortie-ing early was thought to be a waste of Japan's limited fuel supplies, so they were held back for most of the early part of the war when America was on the back foot because the conditions for the kantai kessen hadn't yet been met... and they never would, as the Pacific was too big, the Americans were too good at recovering from any losses, and Japan never achieved the air victories it needed. The only meaningful sortie of either sister was the Battle of Leyte Gulf, where neither would encounter enemy battleships. Musashi would be sunk by air raids, and Yamato would encounter the escort group Taffy 3 ([[WhatCouldHaveBeen Though she could have faced off against Iowa]], if Admiral Halsey hadn't been completely distracted by the decoy Northern Force and hadn't ignored Taffy 3's increasingly desperate requests for backup). She would sink several ships in the ensuing Battle Off Samar, but Admiral Kurita ended up turning back because he thought the exceptionally fierce resistance meant that he was fighting the main American fleet. Yamato would later also be sunk by air attack while she was on her way to Okinawa, where she was supposed to beach herself and act as a shore battery against the expected American invasion.

*** ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4Remake'' also features the new CQBR. It's a fully-automatic American-style black assault rifle, and while it can shred basically any enemy with only a short burst of fire, it still uses rifle ammo; which is intended for single-shot weapons and parcelled out accordingly, leaving you with 4-5 rounds per drop on average. Beyond the initial clip and the spare ammo you gain from capacity upgrades, you'll hardly ever have the ammunition spare to fire it at full-auto.

** ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'' has this with the rocket launcher, which is very powerful (can one-hit just about every boss in the game), but is still better to sell for cash and use that to upgrade one of your guns that gets more than one use.

* The Devastator from ''VideoGame/DukeNukem3D'' is a full-auto, double-barrel rocket launcher that's tiny explosions do as much damage as a single RPG round and can clear out a whole room full of baddies in seconds, but it burns through its ammo supply very quickly and replacement rockets are fairly rare, so most players just hang onto The Devastator until it's time to fight the given episode's boss, which will go down in about 5-10 seconds of sustained fire from it.

* ''VideoGame/QuakeII'' has the QuadDamage and [[InvincibilityPowerup Invulnerability]], items that give the player an enormous upper hand for ''half a minute''. The problem is that they are inventory items, meaning you can activate them whenever you want to use them. However, they're so powerful and you fight off so few enemies at once in the levels, you'll keep the things in reserve throughout the game until the final boss. When used together, they turn it into a joke. It doesn't help that the game pretty much throws Quad Damages at you, making you feel kinda guilty for hoarding the two little Quads you found in the first hub throughout the whole game.
* ''VideoGame/SeriousSam'''s "I win" weapon is the Serious Bomb, which kills every enemy in an area, no matter how much health they have and it can be activated by merely pressing a button. Because of how powerful and handy it is, you'll usually be keeping it in reserve "in case" throughout the game. ''Serious Sam 2'' and ''Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter'' makes this even worse because you have to take it out as a regular weapon before using it, meaning that even if you do want to use it, you'll have to determine if you have enough time or space to take the thing out and use it without being mauled, and by that time you've probably managed to thin out the horde enough so that you don't need the Serious Bomb anymore. On the plus side, Serious Bombs are the only weapon other than the knife and revolver that aren't [[BagOfSpilling taken away at the end of a chapter.]]

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfTanks'' is a multiplayer arcade tank arena combat game that features optional consumables, such as first aid kits, repair kits, and fire extinguishers. In previous builds of the game, such items were single-use consumables that could only be spent once per match. However, this meant that you could, for instance, expend your pricey deluxe repair kit to bring your destroyed tracks back into action and escape destruction, only to have your ammo rack knocked out two minutes later, crippling your damage-dealing ability for the rest of the match. Thus, players often held on to such consumables for far too long, resulting in otherwise survivable situations being lost because players were refusing to use their items in case they would need it later. Thankfully, Wargaming realized that this was leading to an extremely gun-shy, passive player base, and decided to allow consumables to work on a cooldown; now, expending a consumable activates a 90-second cooldown timer, which is usually enough to justify the item's use presently with the potential for 'later' use if needed.

*** The game's durability system and lack of a way to properly repair weapons (excluding the Champions' weapons) make this so. The player never wants to use powerful weapons on weak enemies (or even on powerful ones) because you want to save it for harder enemies, and it will inevitably break. Even the shields and bows break after use, meaning that oftentimes, players will forego combat entirely unless hunting for ingredients to upgrade clothing to avoid damaging their weapons. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVseQ3RDa6s Jim Sterling even references the trope by name in a video discussing their dislikes about said system.]] Ironically, this results in the aforesaid Champions' arms -- the [[ProngsOfPoseidon Lightscale Trident]], [[{{Multishot}} Great Eagle Bow]], [[{{BFS}} Boulder Breaker]], [[LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe Daybreaker]], and [[CoolSword Scimitar of the Seven]] -- averting the trope: despite being powerful, the ease of re-obtaining them makes them the ''most'' likely to be used.

* ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight'' has any number of powerful, one-shot items that most players will hang onto "until the right time". But as the game is relatively easy compared to later {{Metroidvania}}-style games (and possesses what many consider the easiest Dracula fight in the series), that time will never come. On the second or later playthrough of the game, it is possible to obtain an item called the Duplicator, making those single-use items infinitely reusable; still, it's easy to see why many of them became equippable (and thus infinite-use) sub-weapons in later games.

* The Heart Pot you receive from Jenka in ''VideoGame/CaveStory'': using it completely refills your LifeMeter, and then it's gone. It does turn out that [[GuideDangIt you can later go back to Jenka to get another anytime you want]], but soon after getting the first one comes a ''long'' PlotTunnel where you can't return to Sand Zone. On top of that, there are often sequences where you can't freely grab Heart Pots without resetting the level. And to a lesser extent, just going out of your way to go back to Jenka's house is a minor annoyance in general.
** Notably, you cannot get another pot in the final stretch of the game, which is ''four'' boss fights; if you're going for the best ending, this is followed by the BonusLevelFromHell and by two more boss fights, the last of which has four stages. So yeah, still too awesome to use.
* ''VideoGame/SpiralKnights'' has the Mist Tank, which you only get once after passing the tutorial and refills your Mist Energy once, i.e. the "currency" you need to enter levels and craft equipment. The community has, however, puzzled out an optimal method of spending the bonus Mist and the original starting 100 that will leave a new player economically competitive without having to go through the traditional starting grind. Eventually averted, as it is possible to acquire more Mist Tanks throughout the game, though rarely, before being changed to have no Mist Tanks at all.
* This mechanic is used to play a cruel joke on players of ''[[VideoGame/{{Boktai}} Boktai 2 and 3]]''. Deluxe Chocolate, which never expires and restores a good portion of health AND mp, can only be found once in the entire game. However the game [[GuideDangIt never bothers to tell you]] that you can make Deluxe Chocolate whenever you want by positioning chocolate over another piece of chocolate in your item screen and waiting for it to melt. The game also plays this straight with the various tarot card items which do things such as automatically resurrect you when you die or fully restore your health and mp.
* ''VideoGame/BloodstainedRitualOfTheNight'' does this with the Diamond Bullets. Not available until very late in the game, they're incredibly powerful, basically allowing Miriam to one-shot nearly any non-boss enemy and even able to take down bosses in a few hits with even mid-game guns, let alone [[InfinityPlusOneSword the best ones]]. However, they're very expensive to make or buy (one key ingredient isn't available outside of an obscenely rare drop from an uncommon enemy until late in the game, and they can't be bought until they've been made for the first time), and each craft/purchase only makes 9 bullets (outside of late-game GameBreaker tricks). Plus, using guns can be a bit finicky if the player isn't used to how they work in the game. As such, they typically get made once and are left to gather dust in the inventory until the player clears the cooking sidequest to get the Recycle Hat, [[BottomlessMagazines which makes all ammunition infinite when equipped]].
* ''VideoGame/LaMulana'' and [[VideoGame/LaMulana2 its sequel]] both have the Pistol, which is basically the same thing as the Diamond Bullets above. Absolutely wrecks everything, but expensive to buy and ammo refills for it are even ''more'' expensive than the gun itself. However, both games have places to very quickly grind money once Item Fairies are unlocked, and the second game has the hot spring in the Ancient Chaos, which provides a temporary buff giving you infinite subweapon ammo. That said, half the appeal of ''La-Mulana'' is that it's NintendoHard, so anyone playing it might refain from using the Pistol anyway specifically ''because'' of how powerful it is.

* The horror-based adventure game/first-person shooter/interactive movie ''VideoGame/RealmsOfTheHaunting'' has a magic staff which has a very limited number of charges (something like 12 shots or so) and can't be recharged. It isn't noticeably more powerful than the game's other magic weapons, though, so you either never use it anyway, or use all 12 shots then forget about it. Sucks to be you if you did use it up killing common enemies, because it turns out this particular weapon pretty much [[OutsideTheBoxTactic insta-kills the otherwise very tough and annoying final boss.]]

* ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl'':
** The Golden Hammers can automatically unlock a secret without having to do the challenge. In the few challenges that really are exceptionally difficult (beating Boss Battles on [[HarderThanHard Insane]], for example), you can't actually use the hammers in the first place, except in the [[RegionalBonus PAL versions]].
** The heart containers in boss battles. They completely heal you, but there are only three, and they can't be used mid-battle, which often results in death after deciding to try and tank an easy boss at high damage.
* The Golden Hammer conundrum returns for ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosForNintendo3DSAndWiiU''. In the 3DS versions, you can get up to nine Golden Hammers, but only 3 are usable on each page (there are 3 pages of 35 challenges and Golden Hammers can only be used on the same page it was unlocked on). The Wii U version only gives you 5 hammers on a single page of ''140'' challenges. Just like ''Brawl'', there are a few exceptionally difficult challenges that you can't use hammers on (both games have a challenge of beating classic at [[HarderThanHard Intensity 9.0]] without losing a stock. Naturally, neither one can be hammered).

* The Spartan Laser in ''VideoGame/Halo3''[='s=] campaign. It will kill almost anything in the game with one or two hits, can hit multiple targets at once, and it's also [[CoolGuns really cool.]] The problem is, it takes a few seconds to charge up so it's a little hard to actually hit something, it only has 5 shots and can't be reloaded, and you only get one two or three times in the entire campaign (and one of those times, you get it for the sole purpose of [[spoiler: killing 343 Guilty Spark]]). So, you probably won't be using it much.
* ''VideoGame/Halo5Guardians'''s REQ system lets players purchase packs with random weapons, vehicles, power-ups, etc. But all the items are single-use, and the only guarantee that you'll get more in the future is if you unlock a Certification for that specific item. Unlocked a single Prophet's Bane sword with bonus invisibility, a Nornfang sniper rifle with a bonus damage boost, or a heavily armored and armed ONI vehicle? Without certification, you might not see another for a very long time, and that rare REQ may end up instantly stolen, too late in the game to use, too high of a learning curve, or just plain bad luck... yup, it stays in the inventory forever.

* The second ''VideoGame/SystemShock'' has Disruption Grenades, which are great against powerful enemies but always in short supply. Energy weapons, power armor, and implants could also qualify after a certain point, as there's an entire level full of powerful enemies and no rechargers at all, which can lead you to set aside some of your most effective gear because you're afraid of it running out of power and becoming useless.
* ''VideoGame/{{STALKER}}: Shadow of Chernobyl'':
** The game has several special weapons that can be found once and only once. Typically they have something that sets them above their normal counterparts. Problem is, the game has [[BreakableWeapons weapon degradation]], and - if left unmodded - no way of repairing damaged items. This is why many players save up the special weapons, only to find out later on that they become useless against the heavily armored foes of the later game, who require heavier firepower to be brought down.
** [=RPGs=]. As with all weapons in the game, they are really powerful, and thus (as the game's only rocket launcher) far deadlier than any other weapon you can acquire. The problem? The launcher alone takes up about 20% of your equally realistically limited carrying weight, and ammo is virtually nonexistent in the game: there are maybe three rockets you can find in the entire game, and that's if you really take the time to look.

** Turok: Evolution multiplayer and single-player gave us the Rocket Launcher's Swarm Bore and Nuke Attachments respectively. Nuke clears out the room, but then you would rather use them on ThatOneLevel or ThatOneBoss. Swarm Bore... well...
* ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'':
** First aid kits, even more so on Expert. Sometimes, people will absolutely refuse to use first aid to heal and will either be popping pills or just limp on and will only use first aid when the next knockdown is going to cause death. It's a common tactic on [[HarderThanHard Expert]] to kill someone yourself so they can respawn with more health and save a kit.
** The sequel, ''VideoGame/Left4Dead2'', includes the [[{{BFG}} M60]], grenade launcher, and chainsaw which are all very rare and come with limited ammo that cannot be refilled. There's also bile bombs and adrenaline shots, both of which are rare drops. Bile bombs can draw zombies away or even turn them on each other for a long duration, making them valuable during hordes, while adrenaline shots are the only thing in the game that gives a speed boost and negate both fatigue and the zombies' slow-down attack. You can only carry one at a time, and it also means you cannot carry other kinds of bombs or pills (which are much more abundant). Thankfully, the areas where you must use these items are usually very obvious, but in certain maps (such as The Parish) where these locations are at the very end of the map, you're stuck holding onto them for several areas and unable to switch out.
* ''VideoGame/DeusEx'':
** The GEP gun is offered as an option to the player at the start of the game. Good enough to take out most bots with one rocket, it takes up a giant 8 out of 30 inventory slots, and ammo for it is relatively rare.
** HE ammo for the assault rifle later on in the game is partially susceptible to this, as while it offers Heavy Weapon power for a Rifle specialist, it's fairly rare.
** The Light Anti-tank Weapon is a one-shot rocket launcher that is guaranteed to destroy ''anything'' it hits directly, and also probably anything standing nearby. However, because it's only a one-shot gun and takes up four inventory spaces, it's impractical to carry around if you have other rifles or heavy weapons with you. Cue desperate thinking about how best to dispose of it along with some Inventory Tetris. On the bright side, the LAW is almost always found near giant military robots, so if you could spare the space for it you'd certainly have a use for it.
** [=LAMs=] (grenades that can be attached to flat surfaces and then double as proximity mines) are extremely useful for blowing up doors and other barriers or for setting deadly ambushes. However, they are relatively rare, if not as much as some other items. You can use other, easier-to-find explosives like the GEP Gun to reduce the need even more. This can lead to sudden moments of anger when you already have the maximum of 10 [=LAMs=] in the inventory and come upon a new one in the field. There actually IS a point in the game where having loaded up on [=LAMs=] pays off, though. At a later point, they also pretend you'll need at least 5 of them for a mission (with a character charging you thousands of credits to buy some) but actually, any explosive will work. So in the end, outside that one scene, you'll probably still only use them to lay impressive ambush grids, lure your enemies into that, enjoy the show, then load a savegame and get past the obstacle without wasting [=LAMs=] and half an hour of setting them up instead.
* In ''VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution'' you have multiple contenders for this, and frequently spend Praxis Points upgrading your inventory to keep it all in there.
** The Heavy Rifle earlier in the game, which is almost useless without error-correcting augs, and later on the laser rifle or grenade launcher. Masses of space, no ammunition for the latter two, and completely unnecessary when you can headshot everyone with a silenced/laser-guided pistol.
** Those who pre-ordered or bought the applicable DLC pack will experience this through the grenade launcher; it can only be acquired about 2/3 into the plot and eats through boss health, but all ammo for it (save for the six grenades it comes loaded with) must be found, which means most players get little use out of it.
* The Diamond tiles from ''VideoGame/{{Bookworm}}'' are just worth ''so'' many points, that using them in almost any situation feels like a waste.
* ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}}'' trilogy
** The [[GunsAkimbo dual shotguns]] of the latter two installments, which would use up even a maxed-out load of ammo in a matter of seconds (and one ammo pickup contains only 2 shells, the same amount you use up for one shot from the single shotgun). [[MoreDakka And reduce anything in the game to a bloody pulp even faster.]]
** The flechette gun from the third game also qualifies. Is more powerful than the assault rifle and way more accurate, it works in a vacuum, and it's the only weapon (apart from fists) working underwater. Unfortunately, it burns through magazines faster than any other weapon (and you can hold only 8 reloads) and ammo pickups are quite rare.
* The Earthshaker missiles in ''VideoGame/{{Descent}} II''. You'll need most of them for the final boss.

* The Browning Automatic Rifle in the ''VideoGame/MedalOfHonor'' games packs a punch and has great accuracy at long range, but has very limited ammo (practically no pickups). You can get by with an SMG in most situations.
* The original ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' has the BAR fall into the exact same situation for the exact same reason. It's accurate and it's powerful, but you only get it in one level, and the ammo you start out with for it is all you get - there are no pickups in the level and none of your [[RedShirt exchangeable, replaceable allies]] use it.
* ''VideoGame/QuakeII'' has the QuadDamage and [[InvincibilityPowerup Invulnerability]], items that give the player an enormous upper hand for ''half a minute''. The problem is that they are inventory items, meaning you can activate them whenever you want to use them. However, they're so powerful and you fight off so few enemies at once in the levels, you'll keep the things in reserve throughout the game until the final boss. When used together, they turn it into a joke. It doesn't help that the game pretty much throws Quad Damages at you, making you feel kinda guilty for hoarding the two little Quads you found in the first hub throughout the whole game.
* The Devastator from ''VideoGame/DukeNukem3D'' is a full-auto, double-barrel rocket launcher that's tiny explosions do as much damage as a single RPG round and can clear out a whole room full of baddies in seconds, but it burns through its ammo supply very quickly and replacement rockets are fairly rare, so most players just hang onto The Devastator until it's time to fight the given episode's boss, which will go down in about 5-10 seconds of sustained fire from it.
* ''VideoGame/SeriousSam'''s "I win" weapon is the Serious Bomb, which kills every enemy in an area, no matter how much health they have and it can be activated by merely pressing a button. Because of how powerful and handy it is, you'll usually be keeping it in reserve "in case" throughout the game. ''Serious Sam 2'' and ''Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter'' makes this even worse because you have to take it out as a regular weapon before using it, meaning that even if you do want to use it, you'll have to determine if you have enough time or space to take the thing out and use it without being mauled, and by that time you've probably managed to thin out the horde enough so that you don't need the Serious Bomb anymore. On the plus side, Serious Bombs are the only weapon other than the knife and revolver that aren't [[BagOfSpilling taken away at the end of a chapter.]]
* ''VideoGame/Borderlands2'' has the Golden Keys which unlock the golden chest in Sanctuary. The said chest can dispense items of a purple rarity, but because their stats are based on the current level of the PlayerCharacter, they can effectively be obsolete after a while, so some players would tend to save their keys for a high-level character. The keys can only be obtained through preordering the game, purchasing the Mechromancer pack and through codes being periodically distributed on Gearbox's Twitter and Facebook.
* ''VideoGame/BorderlandsThePreSequel'' also has golden keys (which have all the perks and drawbacks of the above) but also has a legendary gun, the Excalibastard. This gun is available as a pickup in Stanton's Liver, an area you can get access to roughly 1/8th of the way into the game. The gun has incredible stats for another gun of a similar build and has the special ability of instantly freezing anyone you get a critical hit on and causing them to explode in an ice nova if you melee them to death. The only catch to it is that you can only pick it up once ''per character''. Once you pick it up, it instantly scales to your level. This means that picking it up early would be a huge boon due to being able to wipe the floor with enemies, but the gun will be quickly outclassed. Pick it up later and closer to the max level and you'll probably not have to worry about it being outclassed, but you would have spent nearly the entire game without it.
* ''VideoGame/Postal2'':
** The Apocalypse Weekend DLC has the Nuclear Launcher, which some might only use on the final boss since its ammo only shows up in one place (unless you use cheats).
** ''Paradise Lost'' has another of its own in the Revolver. More accurate and far more powerful than the default pistol, or even the assault rifle, and has a secondary fire mode that can OneHitKill pretty much any enemy in the game. It and its ammo are also extremely rare, with only two pickups at the start of the game, only one or two more being added per day and its ammo not available from vendors until Thursday (four-fifths of the way through the game), and on top of that, the secondary fire requires you to build up a meter by making kills with regular shots first. On top of ''that'', there are some enemies, including most bosses, who are immune to the secondary fire.
* In an interesting [[ZigZaggedTrope zigzag]], C4 charges late in ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRenegade''. Late in the game, there are lots of Nod structures to destroy and Master Control Terminals are ammo sponges if you try to destroy them without C4. The kicker is that the early game ''swamps'' Havoc with C4 pickups, but from the middle point and on, they're at more of a premium than half of the {{BFG}}s. If you don't want to have a long, tedious and frustrating time in the last two levels, save those puppies as soon as you go through the BagOfSpilling mission.
* ''VideoGame/ShadowOfTheWoolBall'': The Golden Shotgun is the most powerful weapon in the game, but its corresponding ammunition is scarce and most of it is hidden in secret areas, so you'll probably hold off using it on non-boss enemies.
* ''VideoGame/PAYDAYTheHeist'' has doctor bags, which fully restores your health and resets the number of incapacitations you received. Because a doctor bag has limited supplies, players commonly wait until they are on their last knockdown before healing. ''VideoGame/PAYDAY2'' has the same restrictions, but they are eased with the first aid kits which give a full heal while not resetting the knockdown counter. They can also be made more useful with upgrades, allowing a maximum of five uses from a bag in the first game or two separate bags with four uses each in the second. Some levels will have items that act as doctor bags, and you can also purchase a basic doctor bag spawn in every level in addition to bringing your own.
* In ''VideoGame/PathwaysIntoDarkness'', the Black Crystal is the most powerful of the magic crystals, instantly petrifying nearby enemies, but it breaks after just seven uses, so it is best saved for the [[DemonicSpiders Greater Nightmares]] wave of the MultiMookMelee that comes shortly after you find it.

* The console-only (later ported to [=iOS=]) game ''[[VideoGame/{{Civilization}} Civilization Revolution]]'' gives you an [[NukeEm ICBM]] once you build the Manhattan Project wonder. Unlike a typical ''Civilization'' nuke, this one can reach any city and wipe it off the face of the map without leaving any fallout. However, it's a unique unit that you only get ''once'' per game. You probably will end up not using it until the game ends.
* In ''VideoGame/SidMeiersAlphaCentauri'', the ultimate weapon is the Planet Buster, a nuclear warhead that will crater a city (and most of the surrounding area) with the push of a button. You can even build one as early as the mid-game, but odds are you won't ever use it. Why? [[ThisIsUnforgivable If you fire one, then you're expelled from the Planetary Council]], and [[ThisMeansWar you will be in a permanent state of war with all the other factions.]] In addition, a Planet Buster will cause [[GaiasLament massive ecological damage]], [[GaiasVengeance so the native Mind Worms will go bug nuts on you too.]]

** Averted in ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'', where gems can be extracted from the equipment they've been socketed into, either by paying the Jeweler a rather extravagant service charge, or by having the Blacksmith salvage the item (which consumes the item but returns the gems).

* ''VideoGame/GodOfWar'' has the [[LimitBreak Rage of the Gods]] in [[VideoGame/GodOfWarI the first game]]. It takes maybe an hour or two of killing enemies to fill it up all the way, and once you activate it, you have about 10 seconds of mauling everything within 20 feet of you before it's gone. It can't be turned off if you activate it by accident either. From Rage of the Titans in [[VideoGame/GodOfWarII the sequel]] on, there are orbs you can collect to refill the meter, and it can be turned off while active, averting this for the most part.
* Unlike its spiritual predecessor above, ''VideoGame/DantesInferno'' is incredibly stingy when it comes to using your [[BerserkMode Redemption]] due to the [[ScrappyMechanic rate of Redemption regeneration being directly correlated to your combo lengths]]. Moreover, you can't turn it off once you turn it on (a lesson ''God of War'' learned ''years'' ago), and you can only use it once you completely fill at least one tier on the potentially three-tier meter. If playing on [[HarderThanHard Infernal difficulty]], you will use your Redemption ''twice'' over the course of the game, and both times are against [[ThatOneBoss incredibly cheap bosses]]. For all practical purposes, your ''real'' berserk meter might as well be your [[strike:mana]] [[GameBreaker Divine Armor]] meter.
* The ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'' series has Gold Orbs, Vital Stars, Devil Stars, etc. All of which can fall under this trope. The main reason for this is that while you can buy them forever, the price of each item [[AdamSmithHatesYourGuts INCREASES]] each time you buy, making players hesitant as to whether they should use the item on ThatOneBoss or save it for a later difficulty. Mercifully, ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry5'' averts this in regards to Gold Orbs; unlike previous games, there is no limit to how many you can carry, and you can get plenty from the main story, login bonuses, and stylish ratings from other players. This means that you'll always have enough to use one if you really need it.

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' has a lot of items like this, though Blizzard eventually changed them to be unreliable or useless against enemies over a certain level. Fortunately, many of them can still be sold to players that have fewer doubts about using them in a tight situation.
** The Holy Mightstone, an artifact that a level 50 paladin receives at the completion of a lengthy quest chain. It provides a 10-minute buff to damage vs. undead when used, but it can only be used once and can ''never'' be replaced since it's a quest item, so the end result is that most paladins end up never using it. Sadly it's fallen victim to power growth in expansions. At level 60 it would turn you into a death-machine by practically '''doubling''' your offensive stats. At level 80 - not so much. It gives the same boost, but by now it's a 5-10% power-up at most.
** Super Sticky Glue is an item you get from a quest in the Orc starting zone that allows you to immobilize the target. People always hang onto them in case they would ever really need one.
** A similar case with the unique "Light of Elune" potion (which grants full invulnerability for 10 sec and then it's gone forever). You get it as a mid-20s quest reward; people ''still'' have it in their LVL 70 character's inventory.
** A ''lot'' of the abilities with cooldowns over 5 minutes are seldom used except in times of utter desperation, waiting for that right moment... and sometimes in a dungeon or battleground run, never used at all. e.g. "Lay on Hands" (paladin) or "Recklessness" (warrior). Acknowledging this trope, Blizzard changed many of these skills to be somewhat less awesome, but with more manageable cooldowns, generally with the thought in mind that they should be available for every fight exactly once. Especially notable would be Shield Wall, a survival cooldown for warriors that used to have a 30-minute cooldown and make the user nearly invincible for its duration. Now it can be used every few minutes and still provides a significant damage reduction. Few abilities still exceed 10 minutes cooldown at this point, and many of those can be reduced significantly by talents.
** Flasks used to be like this in the original game. While they provided outlandish buffs (such as increasing player health by 1200, which for most classes meant a 30% increase in HP - an incredible amount, particularly for boss fights), they were also notoriously difficult to craft. Obviously, you needed to be a high-level alchemist (which in itself wasn't that big of a deal -- many players would grind alchemy as it provided access to expendable mana and health potions). However, crafting flasks also required Black Lotus, a ''ludicrously'' rare herb (initially at any time there was a maximum of ''four'' in the entire game, up to one in each of the zones they could spawn) that ''wasn't tradeable'': you had to find it ''yourself'' (good luck!) and in order to be able to gather it, you had to be a maxed-out herbalist. Since herbalism was considered a primary profession (of which you could only have two), if you choose any combination of professions other than "herba-alchy", you could not make flasks, period. To top off the ignominy, flasks could only be made in ''one place in the entire world'' (later two), which was smack at the end of a high-level dungeon. When C'Thun was first killed, most of the player community had problems wrapping their minds around the fact that the victorious guild expended '''forty''' flasks on this single boss fight.

** There are several temp powers with a limited amount of use, many of which are earned for or after a specific mission and will never be retrievable again. Not surprisingly, these usually get hoarded for emergencies and are still waiting to be used when your own powers are so far beyond them that there's no point anymore. In some cases they don't make any sense using even when you do get them, a classic example being the Loa Bone, which lets you summon a zombie. Cool for most people, utterly redundant if you are a Mastermind who can already summon zombies.\\\

* ''VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing'': Many, many one-use items, especially the ones that were available for a limited time in the past and most likely will never become available again.
** Many of the semi-rares fall prey to this trope. This may be later averted when diving [[BonusDungeon Fernswarthy's Basement]], where every little bit of stockpiled resistance and HP buff becomes more and more necessary. The items you receive as rewards while diving Fernswarthy's do qualify, though.
** Frosty's Iceball is an interesting variation. It does a large amount of elemental damage, even if you're low-level, and it isn't lost when used...the first two times. If you use it three times in one day, it vanishes. Getting it back is possible, but difficult since it's a [[RandomlyDrops 20%-chance-drop]] from a certain boss in a multiplayer dungeon. The risk of accidentally destroying it by using it one too many times is a pretty strong deterrent against using it at all.
* (Literal) Easter Eggs in ''VideoGame/NexusWar'', because they can only be found once a year, at Easter, and have variable effects that can't be determined before use. Later versions did this with Valentine's Day gifts as well.
* ''[[Website/GaiaOnline zOMG!]]'' has the power-ups (Superchargers to restore partial health & stamina, and Ring Polishers to temporarily increase the strength of your rings). Players get a couple of these from early quests in order to try them out. You can buy more, but the cost is in Gaia Cash, which requires spending real money (as opposed to Gaia Gold, which you can earn in at least a hundred different ways). Therefore, the power-ups earned as quest rewards can become Too Awesome to Use. Recent updates have attempted to mitigate this: power-ups are now rare loot drops, and power-ups bought from the store can be resold on the site's marketplace, which uses Gaia Gold as its currency.

* ''VideoGame/RuneScape'':
** The Tiger Shark, one of the most powerful pieces of food in the game. It heals more HitPoints than any other fish[[note]]Except the Baron Shark (also very rare), which heals slightly more, but with a delay,[[/note]] and it can even boost your life above its normal maximum. Of course, it can only be obtained with a near-maxed fishing level, requires a near-maxed cooking level to be edible, can't be traded with other players, and it's very rare, obtainable only through the Fishing Trawler minigame at an average catch rate of roughly one tiger shark for every ''hour'' of trawling.
** The Ancient Warriors' equipment used to be this. While chaotic weaponry and Nex armor surpass or at least rival them, Ancient Warriors' equipment has been around much longer. Ironically, the armor regained some popularity when they are given high damage soaking, as while they degrade into dust very quickly, individually they are cheaper than Nex armor and is less of a loss in high stakes [=PvP=].
** In the "Sizzling Summer" promotion, players who had membership during a certain time period could redeem their fate cards for up to four extremely useful items, particularly the instant-kill darts, which could only be used on [=NPCs=]. The special items were removed from the game at the beginning of 2013.
*** Since then there have been more events where the Deathtouched dart can be obtained, and in 2018 a new store was added that sometimes sells them for 5 million coins each.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI'' is absolutely the king of this trope. Most items are extremely painful to get in this game and many of them are single-time use only. Many of the items below were extremely powerful when they were made available; their use has diminished somewhat since the level cap raise.
** Phantom Tathlum -- mediocre one-time use multi-class throwing weapon that is dropped by a Notorious Monster (NM). The only reason to own this item is the rather useful +2 INT that it provides when equipped in the throwing slot. To spawn the NM, one must trade an iron ore (uncommon item) to a ??? marker that randomly pops up in a high-level zone every 15 minutes. The item drops approximately 15% of the time. Woe be to you if you accidentally push the "Use Ranged Weapon" button.
** Ambrosia -- this nectar of the gods provides +7 to all stats for 4 hours. To obtain this item one needs to a) travel to a specific zone to kill enemies that have a 5% chance of dropping a specific craft item, b) travel to vendors that may or may not sell specific crafting supplies based on whether players control certain regions in the game, c) have nearly 100 cooking skill, d) cook a Cursed Soup item, e) travel to a high-level end-game zone where a Notorious Monster spawns every 2~6 hours and has a 33% chance to drop a 'Oblation Abjuration' item, f) give the abjuration and cursed soup to an NPC to receive the "Ambrosia" item. The item buffs used to not persist through death.
** Amrita -- a drink which restores 500HP over 5 minutes. Follows the exact same creation process as Ambrosia.
** The Abyssea expansions have [[GodMode Primeval Brew]], an Abyssea-only one-use item that boosts all your attributes to 999, your HP and MP to 9999, gives you a 500 point HP and MP restoration and 50% TP every three seconds. The downside: It costs two million cruor (An abyssea-only currency that can't be traded for and is usually only gained in small amounts) to buy just one three minute dose. However, it goes from Too Awesome to Use to AwesomeButImpractical once you defeat the final boss of the Abyssea expansions, when you receive a key item that drops the cost to a somewhat more palatable 200000 cruor. To put the Brew's power in perspective though: With normal abyssea buffs, an average damage-dealing job can do 3000-6000 damage with one weapon skill on a normal opponent. With a Brew-buffed Corsair with an [[InfinityPlusOneSword Armageddon]], one can do 75000 to 99999 damage with one weaponskill. And with the 50% TP/3 second gain, one can perform a weapon skill every six seconds.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' dips in and out of this trope.
** Certain abilities were like this simply because their long cooldown times made it only suitable in "oh crap" moments. An example is the White Mage's Benediction which fully heals someone instantly. It had such a long cool down that it wasn't practical to drop it on a whim. But the cool down was reduced to 3 minutes, allowing it to come up more than once in a given dungeon battle.

** At the beginning of 2.0, X-Potions, X-Ethers, and Hi-Elixirs were difficult to obtain and craft, but as time went on, not only they were easier to get, but stronger potions were made in later patches.
** A lot of gear used for glamouring purposes tend to be hard to craft, which drives up their prices in the player market, but over time, the items are easier to make and the prices fall.
** The Palace of the Dead has the Pomander of Rage, an item that transforms the user into a manticore and lets them become a OneHitKill machine to everything except bosses. Because RNG is fickle, you may barely get any, which causes people to either save them in a dire emergency or use them in conjunction with the Pomander of Fortune, which boosts the drop rate of coffers left behind by defeated enemies. However since a lot people do Palace of the Dead simply to grind floors 41-50 for experience and that the Pomander of Rage is useless on bosses, if the party still has some in their inventory towards the end of the run, they'll pop it anyway since they'll lose it once they're done.
** Although not a stat-enhancing or curing item, the game has an item called Fantasia to let you change your character's appearance through the character editor. You get two for free and a third one for having the Deluxe version of Heavensward. The rest you have to pay $10 a piece. That might be enough to convince people to not use their Fantasias or at least their last free one.
** There are also some dyes used to color pieces of equipment. Some of them are hard to find due to needing to get lucky with a retainer venture returning with it or grinding out tokens to purchase it. Others you have to buy from game's cash shop. And due to how the glamour system works, you may end up losing an item dyed with said colors rather easily.
* ''VideoGame/BillyVsSNAKEMAN'' has Consumable Kaiju Drops. They are moderately rare items that give a small bonus as long as you have at least one in your inventory[[note]]multiples don't stack[[/note]] but a ''massive'' bonus if you consume one. Naturally, the consumption bonuses of such items are far less than the cost of obtaining them.

* Prior to the Generation 6 update, ''VideoGame/SDGundamCapsuleFighter'' had the [=OC=] 100% chip, which allowed players to level up their units to the next Over Custom level without fail, though only to [=OC=] 5. However, you could only obtain them via giveaways and events, so you'd only get 2-3 at a time and with dozens of Mobile Suits...
** There's also the [[LimitBreak special attacks]] all the Mobile Suits get. They're powerful attacks that let you take out a weaker opponent in one good hit or cut down an opponent's life a good deal. However, using it and missing cuts out a third of your special bar, forcing you to rebuild it to use it again, and using it and connecting wipes out the entire bar, forcing you to rebuild it to restore your skills. Most players tend to keep it until they're down to their last sliver of health.
* In ''VideoGame/MarvelHeroes'', various heroes' ultimate skills take a long time to recharge, up to '''20 minutes'''. You aren't just gonna use Deadpool's Server Lag to annihilate this group of mooks right? Definitely not even on this sub-boss or elite mob. Maybe not even against this stage's boss, what if you'll need it for the next one?

* ''VideoGame/{{Aion}}'' has this in spades with the [[SummonMagic Spiritmaster]] class, who specializes in the summons and in heaping effects on the enemy. Most of the Spiritmaster's spells are rather normal... and then there's [[AwesomeButImpractical the Cursecloud spell]], an area - of - effect spell which has a cooldown of ''one hour'', deals fair initial damage, but shines because it snaps away a good chunk of an afflicted unit's health whenever it casts a spell. Since not all enemies cast spells or have enough HP to require percentage damage, very few situations where Cursecloud is viable exist.
* Aside from the various rare and powerful items that players might be tempted to hoard, ''VideoGame/AuraKingdom'' interestingly uses this trope as the reason why the BigBad Reinhardt came to being in the first place. He was a devout knight serving the bishop who had a miraculous artifact that could restore someone to perfect health even if they were inches from death. However, when Reinhardt's wife was ill with a seemingly incurable illness, the bishop justified his unwillingness to use the artifact to cure her with this trope, believing the artifact should only be used to help save someone powerful and influential who was aiding with the fight against the darkness. When Reinhardt's beloved wife passed away, his anger and resentment toward what he thought was an avoidable tragedy led him to rebel and become the nation's biggest threat.

* The Grenades in ''VideoGame/MetalSlug'' are rather powerful. You'll want to keep them the first time you play the game, thinking you're going to find a good use for all that power... [[NintendoHard The game soon obliges]], and you'll usually end up wasting those grenades when you get killed. Of course, you get a fresh set on your next life, and hopefully a little extra insight on how things work in the game.
* P-Wings in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'' give you infinite raccoon flight, but only once. This game also had some other items that fell prey to this effect, like the Hammer Suits and the Tanooki Suits. They were just too cool and rare to use anywhere, especially when you run the risk of getting them knocked out of you. They're more usable in the ''All-Stars'' remake, where you can save items and regain items earned from beating worlds, meaning you can easily farm P-Wings by repeatedly beating World 1. The same goes for Lakitu's Cloud, which allows you to automatically skip a single stage. While these items absolutely fall under this trope for a first-time player, they have a lot more utility to speedrunners, who know enough about the game to know exactly where they would be most useful and can allow them to achieve speeds that simply wouldn't be possible without using them.
* ''Franchise/MegaMan'':
** ''VideoGame/MegaMan9'' gives us a few of these, with shop items that are expensive, or of which you can only have one at a time. Eddie Call can give you items, including 1-ups. The M-Tank acts like ''Final Fantasy's'' Elixers: it refills your HitPoints and all your [[{{Mana}} Weapon energy]]. But the biggest user of this trope ''has'' to be the Guard Power. It grants double armor for 1 level, but though you'd be tempted to use it against the [[ThatOneBoss Bio-Devil twins]], you'd be ''far'' better off using it against the final level's BossRush and Wily's [[OneWingedAngel 3-stage battle]].
** In ''VideoGame/MegaManX3'' you have the option to call in Zero to replace you. He has a few benefits on X, especially at first, but with two major drawbacks; if he dies, you cannot call him in again, and you can't use him for boss battles. [[GuideDangIt Outside of one, anyway, which is how X gets access to the sword for his own use.]]
** ''VideoGame/MegaManZero's'' Cyber Elf system. Offering tons of one-use power-ups that have a personality and ''die'' once you complete a level. This is averted in ''Zero 3'' with Satellite Elves; but with so many Elves and abilities how could you limit yourself to just two?

** The same applied in the second game to the Peace Maker, a {{BFG}} [[ShockAndAwe lightning-death-cannon]]-[[BuffySpeak thing]] due to its extremely low ammo capacity. The third game could hold double that when fully upgraded, making Peace Maker sustainable to use, but since purple ammo is now shared by Mass Inverter and Supernova, which uses ''10'' shots, it is the last one that won't see much use. Averted in Hero Mode with infinity ammo cheat on, obviously.
* ''Franchise/RatchetAndClank'':
** The [[VideoGame/RatchetAndClank2002 first game]] had the cost of ammo taking a much bigger share of your funds than the subsequent games and ammo crates were less frequent, meaning some of the more expensive weapons such as Devastator and especially Visibomb Gun could become this if the segment you were on had a low number (if any) of ammo crates.
** The ammo for some weapons does not drop in crates at all. This is especially bad in [[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankGoingCommando the second game's]] Synthenoid, which you can fire at most ''thrice'' before running out of ammo. Shield Charger's ammo also has to be bought, though in its case its clip and duration are bigger and upgrade, it was nerfed [[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankUpYourArsenal in third game]], making it closer to this trope. [[VideoGame/RatchetDeadlocked Deadlocked's]] Harbinger also has normally only three shots and the ammo is costly, though that won't be much issue if you are able to buy the gun.
** Second game has Zodiac, the ultimate weapon. Its ammo is found in a crate, but you better hope you find it there because normally one-shot costs 10000 bolts. It does cause a large explosion all around Ratchet, but the long firing animation (which locks you in place and stops if Ratchet takes damage) and the fact that it was ineffective against bosses meant that it was firmly an AwesomeButImpractical gun, to begin with, especially compared to the significantly cheaper [[MacrossMissileMassacre RYNO II]].
** ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankFutureToolsOfDestruction'' has this with the Alpha Disruptor. You get it for free on Sargasso, and it deals jaw-dropping damage out of the starting gate, capable of killing any normal mook in one hit and able to bring down massive enemies like Leviathans in just a few shots—and further upgrades make it the most powerful weapon in the game, even more so than the R.Y.N.O. IV. Unfortunately, its awesome power is quickly set back by three major handicaps—first, it has truly abysmal ammo (4 at first, upgradable to 5). Second, it has a very slow rate of fire without buying expensive raritanium upgrades and the weapon requires charging before firing a shot, making it difficult to hit fast-moving targets with it. And third, it only fires in a straight line like a Sniper Rifle, which makes it great for hitting huge targets like bosses and leviathans, but very impractical for dealing with large, spread out crowds or individual mooks—and while it does have an auto lock-on function, this makes it even harder to use against a crowd of enemies, since it can lock onto the wrong target by accident.
* In ''VideoGame/TheLostVikings'' and its sequel you can find an item that kills every enemy on the screen. However, this item rarely comes into play as you can usually take out your enemies easily enough with your normal attacks.

** In [[BossRush The Arena]] and its related modes, you're given a small number of Maxim Tomatoes between boss fights, which can fully heal you. The issue comes from deciding how to use them; if you're low on health, should you have one right now, or wait for a tougher boss where you'll really need it? Most players choose the latter, and sometimes overestimate how much damage they can take. The True Arena ends up averting this, as you're given six ''regular'' tomatoes which don't heal nearly as much, meaning there's not much point to rationing them out.

* Mojo! Has the bonus infusers, which allow you to change into the respective color at will. However, you must have all four in order to unlock a powerup for a ball at the end of the world, and those powered-up balls are [[GameBreaker MUCH more useful than a bonus infuser…]]

* In ''VideoGame/DragonballZDokkanBattle'', players can obtain the really rare Elder Kai cards. Elder Kai cards can be used to level up a character's Special Attack level, making their LimitBreak hit much harder. However, many players suggest trying to find or grind cards for that character to save them for someone who would ''probably'' need it more.

* For the same reason, the Red Eco Shield in ''VideoGame/JakXCombatRacing''. It is the only thing able to stop Peacemaker or Supernova, the former essentially being this game's Blue Shell and the latter destroying ''everybody'' in front of the player who fired it and also delaying their respawn, therefore it will sit in your inventory until the time is right.

* The heroes in ''VideoGame/WarcraftII'' are almost always Too Awesome to Use, as in most missions [[HeroMustSurvive if they die you lose the mission]]. Only the human side has healers, auto-healing doesn't exist, and you don't always have healers in every mission, so most of the time you keep your hero locked up tight in your base where no one can hurt it so that you don't accidentally lose the mission by getting them killed. The expansion ''Beyond the Dark Portal'' made the heroes into souped-up versions of the regular units, so you might be tempted to use them (and you're often forced to by the mission); in vanilla ''Warcraft II'', they're ''weaker'' than regular units (due to not actually counting as the unit they use the sprite of, meaning they don't benefit from unit upgrades) and far too easily killed to ever be risked in battle. Except when you really need that spell only the hero can cast.
* Heroes were a big problem in most early RTS games, including ''VideoGame/{{Starcraft}}'' and ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpires''. Generally, the heroes only found use if they were either expendable or in a no-production mission. Newer games, especially ''VideoGame/WarcraftIII'', combat this by making {{Hero Unit}}s respawnable and able to be customized and leveled up (though since it has RPG-esque items, it runs into the same problem. Use the one-time Scroll of Resurrection now or wait for an emergency?).
* ''VideoGame/StarcraftII'':
** Explicitly averted in WingsOfLiberty's secret mission- the loading screen actually tells you not to hoard the weapon powerups you find around the level [[spoiler:you're being chased by an unkillable monster during the second half, most of the weapons are OneHitKill against mooks that get in your way... and yet you will very likely barely make it to the exit).]]
** The Co-op mode, where players pick specific commanders with certain units and special abilities. Every commander gets powerful cooldown abilities, such as Raynor's use of the Hyperion, Vorazun's Time Stop, or Mira's Space Station Reallocation. The keyword is "cooldown", and some abilities can have in excess of 300 seconds for a cooldown without upgrades and mastery levels. As such, it's possible to see players in the normal or easy difficulty, who don't have a fair grasp on the game yet, save them for if their base gets overrun, but then realize twenty seconds before victory that this dreaded scenario never came true, and they could have used it a half dozen times during the match where it would have made the mission significantly easier. This kind of practice is fairly rare in hard and nonexistent in brutal, but can still pop up in both from time-to-time depending on the co-op partner.
** [[AvertedTrope Consciously avoided by design]] in the ''[[VideoGame/StarcraftIIHeartOfTheSwarm Heart of the Swarm]]'' campaign. In baseless missions, your heroes are by far the most powerful unit you have and can't not be used. If you do have a base, then defeated heroes will deep tunnel back to the hive cluster and spend a minute healing in a chrysalis before rejoining the fight good as new.

** In the second game, the artillery strikes are hard to get and only work in incredibly specific situations (Tank traffic jams) but can win you the game. Averted when you play a longer game mode though, as you will probably get enough resources to use these strikes and other support abilities multiple times.

* ''VideoGame/Pikmin2'':
** Purple Pikmin. They have ridiculously high attack power and can stun enemies if they land on them, but they're incredibly slow and lack any immunities like other Pikmin types, and on top of that they can only be created through rare Candypop Buds underground, unlike the primary Pikmin which come from Onions. Considering most bosses in-game either rely on a specific immunity or being able to get out of an attack quickly, some players prefer to use Red Pikmin than risk losing their Purples, due to [[BoringButPractical only having slightly lower attack power than Purples, but are much quicker and plentiful.]] Also, there's the issue of requiring 100 Purple Pikmin to lift a dumbbell in Wistful Wild, which encourages players to save them until reaching that part.
** Bitter Spray completely immobilizes enemies and makes even the toughest bosses complete jokes. To balance this out, it's much rarer to come by than the Spicy Spray, which just powers up a Pikmin's attack and speed, and the berry plants needed to make it are often in inconvenient locations. As such, most players just save it for when they're really in a jam and there's no other way out, such as when faced with [[DemonicSpiders Spotty Bulbears]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Dungeonmans}}'': Mostly averted with Consumables. Scrolls and potions are plentiful and many shops stock useful consumables that become affordable in midgame. There are very few elixer-like items that are incredibly powerful but very few exist. Although the player can still hoard items, the game discourages this kind of behavior.
* ''VideoGame/NetHack'':
** In the late game, certain expendable items ''do'' become almost useless - namely scrolls and potions. (No need to hurl potions of paralysis at a monster when you can smite it with Excalibur, after all.) Almost, because you can dip potions and scrolls in water to blank them out; "blank" potions of water can be transformed with an altar into holy water, an essential de-cursing tool, while blank scrolls let you write a new magic scroll with a magic marker (itself an example of this trope, rare and versatile but wears out quickly). This encourages hoarding potions and scrolls that you don't intend to use in their current form, just in case you get the chance to remake them into something better.
** The most dramatic example, however, is the wand of wishing, a limited-use item that lets you summon almost any item or object. Only one of these is guaranteed to spawn, and you're likely to reach the end of the game with a few charges left on it, saved for a dire emergency that never happened. [[EverythingTryingToKillYou In this game]], though, being CrazyPrepared is a good strategy.
* In ''VideoGame/SlashEm'', a ''[=NetHack=]'' variant, may come across the Houchou, an artifact-level spoon. Throwing this spoon at a monster results in an instant kill, after which the artifact is destroyed. ''Slash'EM'' mostly averts this trope, though, because just about every player has their own idea of which single creature in the game deserves skipping.
* In ''VideoGame/DungeonCrawl'', many a run has ended [[{{Permadeath}} permanently]] because a player was too proud to use that fancy wand when they and the orc they were facing were both at death's door, and the player was ''certain'' that next blow would strike true. Being a good ''Dungeon Crawl'' player is very much about knowing when to avert this; in a game with {{permadeath}}, a powerful tool sitting on your corpse might as well have not existed at all.
* Being based on the same principle, but adding in an overworld and the ability to buy storage houses... let's just say it is very common to have a ginormous amount of these in ''VideoGame/{{Elona}}''.
** One example is prayer, which will remove negative statuses, uncurse your equipment and protect you from harmful magic for a while...which will also cost one-tenth of your accrued Favor with your God, which is only built back up from offering corpses and God-specific items at altars. Also, praying above certain Favor thresholds will give you certain gifts to a God, so doing this will set you back if you aim to get the gifts.
** Rods of Wishing, for obvious reasons.
** The Astral Light Pen is one of the rarest and most valuable items in the ''Elona+'' expansion, allowing you to recruit a clone of any enemy you have a high relationship within your party. Other than the grueling choice of which of the many unique [=NPCs=] to copy, this also creates the added effect of inflicting this trope on Tokens of Friendship and Love Potions, which are the only way to meet the requirements with hostile monsters.
* Summon feathers in ''VideoGame/ChocobosDungeon'' allowed you to replace your partner with far more powerful summon creatures. This meant calling to your aid allies that could take down the game's bonus boss singlehandedly while taking only pitiful damage in return. The downside is that, should they actually die, you lose the feather you likely spent hours trying to get your hands on. A randomly summoned feather takes away that risk but doesn't give you the option of selection.
* In ''VideoGame/CastleOfTheWinds'', you randomly find magic wands that can cast all kinds of spells, even the room-clearing Ball spells, with as much as a dozen charges. Even if you do put one in your belt, you'll probably forget you have it.
* Spells in ''VideoGame/TheConsumingShadow'' packs quite a punch in battle and have several beneficial uses outside combat. The problem is that they put quite a drain on the SanityMeter, and you ''really'' don't want the protagonist to go insane before the end-game, especially since he can't cast spells with too low sanity.
* ''VideoGame/SunlessSea'': The Icarus in Black is, technically, the best weapon in the game; the damage it causes is so absurd it can kill the most powerful beast in the entire game in two shots at most. However, the ammunition is similarly absurd: [[AbnormalAmmo Angry, suicidal and very skilled monster-hunters that want to die a glorious death]]. Very few places have those, they are all remote, and they all want a payment big enough that their families can take care of themselves all on their own afterward. All in all, a thousand echoes per shot in the best of cases where the most expensive thing in the game, a giant dreadnought, costs thirty thousand; you are ''probably'' not going to use it more than twice.

* The Climax Mode LimitBreak in ''VideoGame/AfterBurner Climax'', which gives you BulletTime and a MacrossMissileMassacre, does not come that rarely, but it's still possible to fall into this mentality as there's a chance you burn it on one enemy wave only for an even larger wave of enemy planes to show up.

* Chaff grenades in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'' release small strips of aluminum into the air that can interfere with enemy communications and confuse robotic enemies. There are only 5 places in the game where they can be found (1 of which is only available in a NewGamePlus and [[GuideDangIt requires a very specific action to trigger]]).

** The highest difficulty mode, nightmare, is very limited on resources, and if you are playing it, perhaps it is because you already completed the game and wanted a harder experience. So you well know that the game is long and all the risks explained above, except now with even less items! Then, if playing carefully, you can avert the resource scarcity because by saving everything you still end up hoarding items and ammo until the very end.

* From ''VideoGame/TheEvilWithin'' there's the Rocket Launcher that, while severely underpowered compared to its ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' cousin, is still a very powerful BFG in its own right. However, for a NewGamePlus reward, it only comes with a sorely limited amount of 21 shots that can never be replenished. At all. And there are so many ways to waste a rocket too, combined with the Launcher's AwesomeButImpractical nature it tends to end up as a paperweight.
* Averted completely in ''VideoGame/TheEvilWithin2'', which includes a crafting system for making extra ammunition. Ammo pickups for bigger guns range from ultra-rare (Sniper Rifle) to nonexistent (Assault Rifle, Flamethrower & Magnum), but you can use the commonly-found gunpowder to make more. All use a lot of gunpowder to make, but none of your weapons can be made useless from a lack of proper gun food.
* ''VideoGame/FatalFrame'': The Type-00 Film. It's the strongest film in the entire game and can dish out massive amounts of damage, even to the final boss. However, there is only a very limited supply in each playthrough and [[GuideDangIt they tend to have to be found in random locations]], so even if the player has it, they are unlikely to want to waste this precious film.

* In the Lovecraft-inspired Mystery-Survivalhorror game ''VideoGame/EternalDarkness'', you will, except for the first chapter, never use healing items since they have only a limited amount of uses and you will often very early find the Tome of Eternal Darkness, which lets you cast Healing Spells among others and your Mana recharges. The same can be said about your Guns and other weapons that require ammo because the moment you find a melee weapon you won't use your guns on normal zombies anymore and only save them for the arcane horrors and Guardians. Or not even on them, but you will save them for the really big Eldritch Abominations at the end of the chapter, only to find that they are immune to bullets. Also, the chapters often end very abruptly, and your items do not get transferred to the present, so you will probably fight yourself through the chapter only with melee weapons and spells to save your ammo, and then see it all gone due to the chapter ending.
* Averted in ''VideoGame/{{Illbleed}}''. There are several rare and valuable items that can only be found in levels, along with supplies you can buy in the hub zone. Aside from upgrade parts that roll over from stage to stage, all other goodies will disappear from your inventory once a level is cleared, so you have no reason to hang onto the stuff. In fact, it's recommended to use them up to fully heal yourself just before you beat a stage since prize money is deducted if your stats fall under par.
* ''VideoGame/DeadlyPremonition'' has Thomas' Biscuit. You're only ever given two in the game; they refill all of your hunger and tiredness, as well as your health and stamina, ''and'' keep them low for longer. The first one given to you by the game is shortly before the final boss fight, meaning most players will probably use it there, but the other one comes during a BossRush with ample opportunities for saving between, meaning the second biscuit is likely to sit around in player's inventories all through the PlayableEpilogue.

* Insta-Monkeys in ''VideoGame/BloonsTowerDefense 6'', especially for Tier 4 and 5 monkeys. An Insta-Monkey lets you place a pre-upgraded tower for free. High-tier Instas can potentially save you tens or hundreds of thousands of cash. On the other hand, login bonuses only give you low-tier ones every few days, and the other way to get them is reaching every 100 rounds in a game. Even then, you'll mostly get Tier 3 ones. Tier 4 Instas are rare, and you'll need to play Expert maps for a decent chance of them. Tier 5 ones are practically unobtainable outside of special events.

* ''VideoGame/SidMeiersAlphaCentauri'''s expansion pack introduced Battle Ogres. These are alien war machines left on Planet that really kick-ass, especially the Mark 3. Problem? They are rare, and damage to them can never be repaired. So despite having very good weapons for when you pick them up, they tend to sit around as garrison units, because they have an ability that makes them better police. They're also good stopgaps in the case of mind worm swarms, as they have not only good defense but (in the mark 1 and 2 versions) additional defenses against psi attacks. Just be sure to never let them get into ''real'' combat.

* The three one-shot ultra-weapons in ''VideoGame/{{Odium}}'' (a missile, lightning and an energy beam). They cause colossal damage in a huge radius.
* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'':
** The Samurai class in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'' has the ability to unleash area attacks from the different katanas available in the game. However, using them in this fashion had a chance of breaking them. While some of the weaker katanas were easily purchased (including, fortunately, one that restored allies' health), the most powerful ones were available only as rewards in battle (or via stealing from enemies). While you could just equip said katanas and use them for melee attacks to your heart's content, the special attack (which could break the katana) wound up never used.
** See that beautiful Allmighty Antilaw in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance''? It allows you to completely nullify all laws in the battle. Which means that they are the ultimate anti-judge weapon. But then it should be noted that it is limited to very certain plot points of the game. This extends to a lesser extent to the R level law cards which are still rare, but they can keep returning to the card shop. But good luck on getting yourself to use them too because often times you will just stomach the laws to begin with.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Piratez}}'', there are the Baby Nukes, which can only be found on certain difficult missions (and ''obviously [[MemeticMutation do not exist]]'').
* ''VideoGame/{{Battletech}}'': About halfway through the campaign mode you're gifted an SLDF Highlander absolutely loaded with [[LostTechnology LosTech]]. This thing might be the most powerful 'Mech in the game... but it's also loaded with literally irreplaceable [=LosTech=], parts of which are bound to be lost to attrition with each deployment. Mitigated somewhat with the Heavy Metal DLC, which makes [=LosTech=] parts show up on the black market more regularly, which makes keeping your trophy Highlander at peak performance more plausible.

* ''VideoGame/LANoire'' has Intuition Points that allow you to find all clues and ease questioning, you also only get a limited amount of them and can only have 5 at once. This is inverted after you have completed the story, which lets you go back to any previous case and always start with 5 Intuition Points. This encourages using them to achieve a perfect rank in that case.

* ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes'' has Anarchy in the Galaxy, the most devastating LimitBreak move in the game that clears the entire screen of enemies. It's also the ''only'' LimitBreak that can not only be triggered at will (thus avoiding every other one's problem of almost always being gained from the ''last'' kill in a room), but ''stacks'' as well in case you get more than one over the course of a level, and you get a sizeable cash bonus if you make it through the level without using it. The cash bonus increases on subsequent playthroughs. It also does squat to bosses.

* ''[[VideoGame/{{Mercenaries}} Mercenaries: World In Flames]]'' has this issue with its various Airstrikes/Supply drops. If you had a strike available you need only aim at the target area, and call down the thunder/goods. They can even be found at a decent frequency. But you are constantly in paranoia that your large mortar strike won't be as useful here clearing out a random enemy outpost, as it would ''there''... the next enemy outpost. There's only one instance where an airstrike is necessary, and you use a ''nuclear bunker-buster'' for that one. Aside from that, players are likely to have enough large munitions stocked up to support a small army.
* Missile launchers in ''VideoGame/TerraTech'' are the most versatile and among the most powerful weapons in the game, but they are also expensive and prone to blowing up after a few hits. Players tend to hoard them until they have enough to bulldoze anything in their path.
* Making it to the Galactic Core in ''VideoGame/{{Spore}}'' gives you the Staff of Life, which instantly terraforms a planet to T3 with full ecosystems. The downside is that it only has 42 uses, and you can't get more without a mod. In theory you could get one Staff of Life per save file, and you can have a lot of saves (though there is still a hard cap), but you'd have to make it to the Galactic Core each time [[DangerInTheGalacticCore which is no easy feat]].

* The queen in TabletopGame/{{Chess}} verges on this, at least in the beginning of the game. A common piece of advice to beginners is to never bring your queen out too early, as while it is the most powerful piece, that actually makes it vulnerable in the opening due to the fact that it can be chased around and trapped by less valuable pieces. Of course, there are always exceptions to this.

** 4th edition attempted to avert this trope:
*** Encounter powers are usable once per encounter, so it is a waste NOT to use them, as if they go unused you gain no benefit at all. Action points (which give you an extra action, though some characters can gain other uses for them) are restricted to being used once per encounter, you gain one every second encounter, and they reset after the adventure, encouraging players to use the resource. Sadly, many newbie players don't understand this and play this trope straight until it is explained to them; the optimal strategy tends to be to use all of your encounter powers straight away, and to either use an action point in the encounter immediately prior to gaining another one (so the 2nd, 4th, ect.), as well against any sort of boss, or to save up for the first two fights, and then use an action point in the third, fourth, and fifth fights (assuming a standard 5-encounter adventure).
*** Daily powers play this straight with many players as well; because they are usable only once per day (though they do reset), they tend to be saved for bosses. At low levels, you only have one, and thus often save it for the boss fight. At higher levels, you will have four daily powers, and possibly some daily utility powers as well, meaning that if you save them all for the final fight, even if you use them every single round in the fight, you still may not run out of them and will likely overwhelm the boss with insane firepower. Interestingly, many high-level monsters seem to be designed with the assumption that you'll drop a daily power in every fight, which is actually probably a good idea because it helps you conserve healing surges for later in the adventure.

* Magic items in the earliest edition of ''TabletopGame/TheDarkEye'' could easily end up being this, since with the single exception of the eponymous "dark eye" ''all'' example items listed in the rulebook, from the obligatory healing potion over a belt that would temporarily boost a character's strength to a key that could open any lock, were single-use only. (The dark eye itself was limited in a different fashion -- it was a crystal ball magically tied to the site of its creation, so even if you ever found the one you couldn't take it with you.)

** Averted in the case of combi-weapons. Popular wisdom is to send a squad loaded with combi-weapons on a suicide drop to eliminate a big threat, fire the one-shot mode immediately, and not to worry about the inevitable retaliation. Doubly averted in more recent editions, where both firing modes have infinite uses.
** In-universe, the Custodes for the Imperium. They are bar none the mightiest warriors in the Imperium, even stronger than the Space Marines. However, the BioAugmentation process used to create Custodes is so taxing that each Custodes is a huge investment for the Imperium. As a result, the Imperium can't risk losing a single one for any reason save defending the Golden Throne itself. Again, averted in later editions, as the Custodes have begun taking a more active role in the defense of the Imperium, and have even become a fully playable faction.
** In-universe, Imperial Titans take centuries to construct, due to the veneration given to them by the Adeptus Mechanicus (The revered Emperor-Class Titan is implied to take a Millenium or two to actually make, or sometimes LostTechnology outright). As a result, even though a single titan can turn the tide of battle in the Imperium's favor, they're seldom used outside of defending their Forge World homes, so the act of deploying even a single Titan Maniple (which consist of only three titans) is considered a GodzillaThreshold just under that of [[EarthShatteringKaboom Exterminatus]]. This also means that the Imperium will go to absurd lengths to recover even parts of a Titan, as repairing one is far quicker than building a new one. The only aversion to this is Imperial Knights, which are specifically created as cheap, mass-produced versions of Titans for use in "small" scale engagements.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'':
** A good number of one-use-per-game magic items that a player must carefully choose the right time to use. Frequently these will end up going unused in the hands of a cautious player, who is saving them for a later that never comes, just in case. Perhaps the most common such item in the 8th edition of the game is the Dispel Magic Scroll - a scroll which automatically dispels an enemy spell and stops it from working before it is cast. In previous editions of the game the ''Dispel Magic'' Scroll was ubiquitous -- pretty much the only magic item that could be duplicated. This led to many players loading down their wizards with as many of the things as they could cram in, then using them liberally, to severely curtail the enemy's magic phase. This was rarely fun, especially if both sides were doing it, so in 8th edition, the Dispel Magic Scroll has become a one-per-army item like everything else. Now that it represents your army's one chance to automatically counter a key enemy spell (other dispel attempts require the rolling of dice, and can fail) it has become a precious resource indeed. So precious that they frequently go unused nowadays.
** There's also an abundance of arcane items similar to the dispel scroll that either expands upon its functions (such as dispelling all magic that phase) or does something equally effective to the enemy wizards that effectively shut them down for one turn. They're usually done so in such a way that they cost much higher than what the dispel scroll would be worth, even if the effect was technically worse; this is because the writers know that the simple fact that these items exist would unbalance the game, after all, it no longer becomes a question of "which one to use" (as is the case with Magic Weapons and Armor) but rather "how many can I cram into my list". And indeed every such item is squeezed in alongside the dispel scroll whenever possible; even sometimes at the expense of actual troops. But since they too are one-use only, they seldom see use unless the perfect opportunity comes along. The most notable example is the Hellheart, which can nuke several enemy wizards in a large radius, but the owner would try to maneuver the holder into such a position, while the enemy (as they would be allowed to know if a Hellheart was taken and who has it) would try to lead him on a merry chase, invoking this trope so that he might not lose even a single caster to it.
* Fellow ''Creator/GamesWorkshop'' game, Chainsaw Warrior has the Laser Lance. This weapon is the most important item in the game, he'll always start with this (in contrast everything else he has is random, even his chainsaw might not appear). It's the one weapon that NO ENEMY is immune to and in the iOS game sequel - the Laser Lance has an ArmorPiercing capability that rivals a multi-rocket M-T-M Rocket launcher and the massive Bartlett X600 Sniper Rifle. However few people use the Laser Lance unless it's a real emergency or they're fighting the last boss, the Darkness. The kicker? The Laser Lance has mediocre accuracy and only 3 shots. The Darkness can only be killed by two weapons, the Laser Lance and the Implosion Vest which also kills the wearer, making the Laser Lance the only safe choice.
* {{Defied|Trope}} in ''TabletopGame/{{Numenera}}'': [[LimitedUseMagicalDevice Limited-Use Magical Devices]] called cyphers are found all over the place, but [=PCs=] are only able to carry two or three or a time safely. So regardless of how awesome a given cipher is, the system encourages you to burn them and grab new ones after every encounter.
* Destiny points and, to a lesser extent, Force points in ''TabletopGame/StarWarsSagaEdition'':
** Destiny points are extremely powerful character attributes: they can be spent to make any attack an automatic critical hit or any enemy attack an automatic miss (even after the dice have already been rolled and the results announced); they allow your character to act out of turn or take damage, and they can be converted to three less-powerful, but still useful Force Points. The downside? You only get one at each level up, with no way to obtain more. Due to their extreme power, players tend to stockpile them and not spend them unless the situation is truly desperate. Some [=GMs=] house rule a hard cap on how many destiny points a character can have at one time in an attempt to avoid this (and to prevent the players from taking out the campaign's final boss by using destiny points to score 5 critical hits before said boss can even act).
** Force points allow a character to activate some special abilities, add 1d6 to nearly any d20 roll, and turn a fatal blow into a merely incapacitating one. That last one ensures that players always keep at least one on hand at all times. Because Force Points only regenerate at each level up, players usually stockpile a couple for emergencies and refuse to spend them until they're close to leveling up. An alternate, optional rule sees players get a far lower number of Force points (one for Levels 1-6, two for levels 7-12, and three for levels 13+) but have them regenerate daily. Though the game suggests using this rule for a campaign that uses Force points more frequently, the end result often sees ''less'' Force point usage, to the point where players under level 7 frequently won't use any Force Points at all, lest they be caught without one when a strong attack drops them to 0 HP.

* ''Fanfic/XCOMRWBYWithin'' has Strike Team One and later Strike Eight who are the best of the best which makes command leery of using the entire team for one mission in case they're needed for another critical mission comes up when they're still on their mandated downtime. Also, until they develop a device to use Aura all the time, Strike Eight's members use a device that allows for Aura and Semblance usage for only ten seconds and only has a single-use. All of them hesitate to use their device on a mission because they might need it more later before they can head back to base.

* In ''Film/ThisIsSpinalTap'', Nigel Tufnel has a six-string Fender bass guitar, still in its wrapping, which has never been played. He says to Marty [=DiBergi=]: "''Don't touch it! Don't even point at it!''" TruthInTelevision: that instrument is a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fender_Bass_VI Fender Bass VI,]] of which only some 300 were ever made. They are Too Awesome to Use even in RealLife. Only two are known to exist in that Sea Foam Green color scheme.

* ''LightNovel/FateApocrypha'' features [[Literature/{{Mahabharata}} Karna]] as one of the Servants, who by extension has access to the Vasavi Shakti, the javelin of the Sanskrit god Indra which he was promised one use of when he shed his armor and earrings, which made him invincible. This javelin is capable of killing gods, but to activate it he must permanently give up those same items, going from [[CompleteImmortality immortal]] to a GlassCannon. And just like the myth, it's one-time use. [[spoiler:He finally ''does'' use it at the climax of the War against [[TheHero Sieg!fried]], but Astolfo uses Achilles's final Noble Phantasm [[LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe Achilles Cosmos]] to block it. While it destroys the shield and leaves Astolfo badly injured, Sieg!fried takes advantage of Karna's weakened state and finishes him off]].

* Invoked in ''Literature/PrinceCaspian''. Caspian is reluctant to use Susan's magic horn since there might be an even greater need for it in the future. Nikabrik points out that, by that argument, he will never use it until it is too late.[[note]]In fact, the horn is reusable and has already been sounded at least once (in ''Literature/TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe'') but Caspian and his companions don't know this.[[/note]]
* SorcerousOverlord Longshadow provides a villainous demonstration of this trope in the ''Literature/TheBlackCompany'' series. He is recorded as hoarding numerous gewgaws, knickknacks, what's-its, and thingamabobs enough to leave your jaw unhinged. None of which are given greater purpose than collecting dust, even after his armies have been nigh obliterated, his fellow (allied) Shadowmasters have been offed (partly due to his ChronicBackstabbingDisorder), and he has the weight of the manhood of an [[FantasyCounterpartCulture Indian-esque]] scaling the walls of his incomplete mega doom fortress.

* This almost becomes the fate of Harry's Felix Felicis in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince''. Having won it on the first day of class, Harry goes most of the year not using it, except in a MagicFeather plot to help Ron play well in their Quidditch match. All throughout the year, the notion of using it for various purposes crosses his mind, but he holds back, until he does eventually use it to gather an important memory from Professor Slughorn - and even then, only a teaspoon or so, to make the rest last.
* In ''Literature/MistbornTheOriginalTrilogy'' the metal atium can be this for Mistborn. It grants you CombatClairvoyance and enhances your mind so well you're practically invincible, but it doesn't last very long, is incredibly expensive, and you need to swallow it to have access to it. If you swallow it and end up not needing to use it, good luck getting it back. While it doesn't happen in the series, it's a safe bet that a number of Mistborn have been killed trying to get through a fight without using their atium.
* In ''Literature/WaxAndWayne'' aluminum can't be detected or influenced through [[WhateverMancy allomancy]], making aluminum alloy guns and bullets the ideal materials for fighting allomancers. However, the process to cheaply produce aluminum has not yet been discovered, making the metal more expensive than gold. When a group of well-funded thieves find the place they're robbing defended by allomancers, none of them had their aluminum bullets loaded for fear of wasting them, and they have to spend crucial time switching over. The same thing happens to the main character when he has experimental bullets designed to be used against specific types of allomancers; he doesn't shoot at enemies because he doesn't want to use the bullets against the wrong person.

* In ''Literature/SandmanSlim'', during the time when he was Satan, Stark demanded guns from a wealthy devil worshipper. The worshipper gave him a number of guns including a "mare's leg" shotgun. As a pop-culture buff, Stark thought the mare's leg was fantastic but he couldn't bear to get have it damaged, so he elected to stash it rather than putting it to use.
* In ''Literature/StarshipTroopers'' Mobile Infantry units are sometimes equipped with 2-kiloton nuclear warheads, but the soldiers are instructed to ''not'' use them unless there's a valuable enough target (such as a starship) and they aren't absolutely sure no comrade will be caught in the blast (Rico had this literally whipped into him during basic training when he fired a simulated one by "eyeballing" it rather than using the targeting computer, and he still got away easy: by all rights, he should have been ''court-martialled and drummed out'', but he was smart enough to not ask one when offered and was simply given a whipping). This of course causes Rico's problems during the raid on the Skinnies' planets, as he's been given two and their orders are to expend ''all'' their munitions (he hits a starship and a water-treatment plant).

* As a Commissar, ''Literature/CiaphasCain'' [[note]]'''HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!!!'''[[/note]] is authorized to kill or override the orders of anyone in the Imperial Guard, up to generals, with little oversight. One reason why he's a ReasonableAuthorityFigure is that he is careful not to abuse the privilege unless it's an emergency.

* ''Series/TheAmazingRace'' introduced the Express Pass in Season 17, which allows the team holding it to skip one task (or neutralize a U-Turn used on them) anytime in the first 8 legs of the Race. It generally averts this, as teams will use it the first time they think they're in danger of elimination (or on the 8th leg if they still have it at that point). However, in Season 22, Jessica & John won the Express Pass on the first leg and were actually eliminated without ever having used it because John insisted on saving it even when it was clear they were in the last place and there was only one other team still racing.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': Ashildr, having been made immortal, is given a single second dose of her ImmortalityInducer so she can give it to someone to accompany her through the ages. Eight hundred years later, losing her mind from loneliness and lack of purpose, she still hasn't used it because, well, you'd have to be ''really'' sure.
* In ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', the Borg became this for the show's creators. The Borg were so awesomely powerful (and impossible to negotiate with) that they only got used four times (6 episodes, because of 2-parters) over the entire 7 seasons of the show. It was just that hard to come up with a way to defeat the Borg without making them seem less awesome. Of those 4 times they face the Borg, they are saved once by essentially DivineIntervention, and once they are merely facing an individual drone and the challenge is to make him an individual (plus attempting not to tangle with the Borg ship coming for the rescue), not to defeat him. So the Enterprise crew only actually defeated the Borg twice during the run of the TV series; and one of those times was against a rogue faction of Borg under the command of [[spoiler:Lore]], so they only defeated the "true Borg" ''once''. This averted the BadassDecay that the Borg did not encounter until they became staple enemies during ''Series/StarTrekVoyager''
* A first-season episode of ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' establishes that the titular starship left DS-9 with 38 photon torpedoes and has no way to replenish them, suggesting that they have to be very careful with how they use them. Or not, as they go through their entire inventory and then some over the show's run, so they apparently did figure out how to make more of them.

* In ''Webcomic/{{Adventurers}}'', Karn saves Fire Shards to use against the FinalBoss, against whom they do [[http://www.adventurers-comic.com/d/20041030.html only 213 points of damage.]] For clarification: at that stage [[http://www.adventurers-comic.com/d/20040812.html even their standard attacks do 9999 damage,]] making 213 points a drop in a bucket.
* Webcomic/MSPaintAdventures' ''Webcomic/ProblemSleuth'' [[http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=4&p=000876 plays]] [[http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=4&p=000930 this]] [[http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=4&p=001106 repeatedly,]] with the same skill. When it is finally used, though, [[spoiler:the move triggers an [[http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=4&p=001708 ending sequence]] that easily takes up the next 50 pages, if not more.]]

* Discussed in [[http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=358 this]] ''Webcomic/VGCats'' comic.

* Yahtzee of ''WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation'' refers to this as the "But I might need it later" syndrome, and notes that with the advent of NewGamePlus, "later" might not even be the final boss battle.
-->''So we have scenarios where you're sitting on a nuclear stockpile to shame North Korea and are throwing peas at a giant robot crab on the off-chance that there might be a bigger giant robot crab just around the corner. No game illustrates this phenomenon better than VideoGame/{{Mercenaries}} 2, or as I like to call it, [[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/231-Mercenaries-2 Airstrikes 2: Hooray for Airstrikes.]]''
* Creator/LauraBailey of ''WebVideo/CriticalRole'' enacts a classic example when wondering whether now would be the time to use her Arrows of Dragon Slaying, whether it would be a "waste" to use them now... against Umbrasyl the Hope Devourer, an ancient dragon. Naturally, everyone at the table yells at her, and she ends up using the arrows. Attribute it to either Laura/Vex's legendary stinginess with loot, or the fact that Umbrasyl works with three other dragons they'll have to fight later...

* Played with in ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformersTheMovie''. Each successive leader of the Autobots is the caretaker of the Matrix of Leadership, an ancient one-use-only artifact prophesied to "light their darkest hour" with its immense power. It turns out, however, that the artifact's holder cannot actually choose when it to use it, as the characters mistakenly believe at first. Later in the series, this is played straight when Optimus is forced to open the Matrix to eradicate the HatePlague afflicting the galaxy; as the Matrix's accumulated eons of knowledge are what could ultimately destroy the plague, Optimus using it this way left it as nothing more than an empty metal container.

* Inverted on ''The WesternAnimation/{{Visionaries}}.'' The characters' magic staffs could each only be used once before needing to be recharged by local wizard Merklynn, who would only do it in exchange for going on a dangerous quest for him. None the less, every time they finally got the staffs recharged, they rarely seemed to show the slightest hesitation at burning them out again at the drop of a hat.

* ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'':
** The {{BFG}}9000 from all installments is likely to fall under this trope as well. The player is likely to use the BFG only rarely to save up on ammo better applied in the plasma gun, as each BFG shot costs 40 cells and is overkill against the majority of {{mooks}}. The "I can handle these with smaller weapons" effect comes to play, even though in 75% of fights against big groups, you can actually ''conserve'' ammo by using the BFG. ''Doom 3'''s version of the BFG uses its own unique ammo type, which should make it more viable to use but instead makes it feel even ''more'' restrictive despite the game giving plenty of BFG cells from that point on. ''VideoGame/Doom2016'' made it even worse by making BFG shots into rare pickups and only allowing you to carry 3 at a time- the BFG was also given a unique weapon equip button rather than being on the weapon wheel with all the "common" weapons, emphasizing its status as a special weapon for desperate circumstances rather than something that should be used regularly.
** The Soulcube in ''VideoGame/Doom3''. It does enough damage to one-shot any non-boss monster, refills your health up to 100, and recharges every 5 kills (it even helpfully says "use us" once it's charged). While you could theoretically just use it on every 5th monster you fight, most people still save it for things like [[BossinMookClothing Archviles]] and [[DegradedBoss Hell Knights]]. In an interesting twist, it is the only way to actually hurt the [[FinalBoss Cyberdemon]], although you are given an endlessly respawning stream of low-end {{Mooks}} so you can refill the cube.
** The trademark Artifact (aka Heart of Hell) from ''VideoGame/Doom3: Resurrection of Evil'' can stop time, turn the player invincible, and boost the damage of their weapon all at once depending on how many of the Hunter bosses they've killed. It's such a cool effect that the player is commonly tempted to conserve the artifact's energy and rarely use it, even though it can be recharged just about everywhere. Then again, its power depends on ''human souls stolen from corpses'', so not using the artifact can fall into VideoGameCaringPotential.

*** The game's durability system and lack of a way to properly repair weapons (excluding the Champions' weapons) make this so. The player never wants to use powerful weapons on weak enemies (or even on powerful ones) because you want to save it for harder enemies, and it will inevitably break. Even the shields and bows break after use, meaning that oftentimes, players will forego combat entirely unless hunting for ingredients to upgrade clothing to avoid damaging their weapons. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVseQ3RDa6s Jim Sterling even references the trope by name in a video discussing his dislikes about said system.]] Ironically, this results in the aforesaid Champions' arms -- the [[ProngsOfPoseidon Lightscale Trident]], [[{{Multishot}} Great Eagle Bow]], [[{{BFS}} Boulder Breaker]], [[LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe Daybreaker]], and [[CoolSword Scimitar of the Seven]] -- averting the trope: despite being powerful, the ease of re-obtaining them makes them the ''most'' likely to be used.

* This almost becomes the fate of Harry's Felix Felicius in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince''. Having won it on the first day of class, Harry goes most of the year not using it, except in a MagicFeather plot to help Ron play well in their Quidditch match. All throughout the year, the notion of using it for various purposes crosses his mind, but he holds back, until he does eventually use it to gather an important memory from Professor Slughorn - and even then, only a teaspoon or so, to make the rest last.

* ''VideoGame/PlantsVsZombies'': Most emergency plants, i.e. Cherry Bomb, Jalapeno, Doom Shroom, etc. Most of them get pretty expensive at 100 suns upward for an explosion, when you could be spending your sun on permanent attacking plants. They also take forever to recharge, so you can't use one back-to-back for multiple emergencies.

* Rh-null blood. It's the universal donor, meaning anyone of any blood type can take Rh-null blood and have it work. But [[BlessedWithSuck someone with Rh-null blood can't take anything except Rh-null blood]], so hospitals rarely use donated Rh-null blood in case an Rh-null a patient comes in and needs a transfusion or an emergency when there is no time to determine blood type.

** In-universe, Imperial Titans take centuries to construct, due to the veneration given to them by the Adeptus Mechanicus (The revered Emperor-Class Titan is implied to take a Millenium or two to actually make, or sometimes LostTechnology outright). As a result, even though a single titan can turn the tide of battle in the Imperium's favor, they're seldom used outside of defending their Forge World homes, so the act of deploying even a single Titan Maniple (which consist of only three titans) is considered a Godzilla threshold just under that of Exterminatus. This also means that the Imperium will go to absurd lengths to recover even parts of a Titan, as repairing one is far quicker than building a new one. The only aversion to this is Imperial Knights, which are specifically created as cheap, mass-produced versions of Titans for use in "small" scale engagements.

* In ''LightNovel/RebuildWorld'', CWH ammo is special heavy-duty ammunition designed for use with an anti-materiel rifle. It boasts amazing stopping power, allowing it to punch through the skulls of monsters the size of a small office building with ease and kill them even with their HealingFactor. But this power comes with a hefty price tag, forcing Akira to reserve it as a trump card against colossal and heavily-armored enemies. Akira later gets other bullets like this, like anti-DeflectorShields rounds that cost millions per bullet, and HomingProjectile rounds. With the latter, Akira has a comedic reaction when Togami loads Reina's gun with them and she goes all out. Even later, Akira gets {{Antimatter}} rounds that cost a hundred million each, which almost makes him cry to fire. This amount of money is small change for some of Akira's squadmates, who were more concerned about them being extremely illegal.

* The United States and several of its global rivals have developed powerful cyberweapons based around "zero-day" vulnerabilities, which are are security holes in certain pieces of software which neither the developers of the software nor the public know about yet. Because the victims of the cyberattack didn't know that this weakness exists, they will have no defense prepared against it the first time it is used. One thing that keeps these cyberweapons from being used more often (apart from fear of retaliation in kind) is the fact that there are a limited number of such exploits, and a given exploit [[ItOnlyWorksOnce can only be used once]] before the global community finds out about it and all vulnerable systems are patched. Another reason is that reckless use of cyberweapons against another country's economy, military, or infrastructure could set off escalation and retaliation in kind. Therefore, a bunch of countries are probably holding back their most powerful cyberweapons until some GodzillaThreshold is crossed.

* The Russian T-14 Armata tank and SU-57 stealth fighter were hyped by Russian state media as the ultimate weapons that surpass their Western counterparts. The T-14 boasts completely remote-controlled—allowing the remaining crew to be encased in a separate armored capsule inside the hull—and the tank incorporates the ''Afghanit'' hard-kill active protection system to intercept incoming projectiles. The SU-57 blends futuristic stealth systems with modern avionics and extreme maneuverability. Yet despite their formidable reputation and potential capabilities, neither vehicles were largely absent from the 2022 Russo-Ukrainian War due to low production rates. As there were too few T-14s and SU-57s to make a meaningful strategic difference, Russian commanders relegated them to inside Russian borders out of fear that they could be destroyed or captured in Ukraine.

** Averted in the case of combi-weapons. Popular wisdom is to send a squad loaded with combi-weapons on a suicide drop to eliminate a big threat, fire the one-shot mode immediately, and not to worry about the inevitable retaliation.
** In-universe, the Custodes for the Imperium. They are bar none the mightiest warriors in the Imperium, even stronger than the Space Marines. However, the BioAugmentation process used to create Custodes is so taxing that each Custodes is a huge investment for the Imperium. As a result, the Imperium can't risk losing a single one for any reason save defending the Golden Throne itself.

* In ''VideoGame/EnterTheGungeon'', literally ''every'' gun except your starting pistol can become this when it comes to clearing regular rooms, at least for the first couple of floors. After that, it continues to apply to whatever your most powerful gun is because there's always a chance you won't find any new ones on that floor. Blanks, too, tend to be hoarded until the boss fight, because a few well-timed blanks can mean beating the boss without taking any damage at all, which nets you an extra heart container.