History Main / TooAwesomeToUse

** 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.

* The Earthshaker missiles in ''VideoGame/{{Descent}} II''. Easily the most powerful weapon in the game, and can clear out a room of enemies better than anything else, but you'll need most of them for the final boss (due to the way its weakness works making them pretty much the only effective weapon against it). Same goes for the Vertigo expansion, and many fan-made level sets, which use the same kind of gimmick for the final boss.

* The Earthshaker missiles in ''VideoGame/{{Descent}} II''. You'll need most of them for the final boss.

** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemEngage'' has the Nodus sta, which you acquire by getting Elusia to the maximum donation level. It restores all party members' Engage meters to full, but only has a single use and cannot be acquired anywhere else. As such, many players are hesitant to use it, although the class skill for Hortensia's unique class gives a chance to avoid expending the staff's durability after using it, thus allowing it to be used again.

* The UrExample may well have been the Shakti weapon gifted to [[TheDragon Karna]] by the rain God Indra in the Hindu epic ''Literature/{{Mahabharata}}''. The Shakti weapon is unstoppable and is guaranteed to kill anyone it is fired at. Karna hopes to use it to defeat his archenemy Arjuna when he eventually duels him. Unfortunately for Karna and fortunately for Arjuna, Karna is forced to use the Shakti weapon to slay [[NobleDemon Ghattotgaja]] instead to save the Kaurava army from utter annihilation. This leaves him defenseless against Arjuna during their duel two days later.

* The bronze turkey in stage 8 of ''VideoGame/StreetsOfRage4''. You could one-hit a mook with it, or try to carry it to the next area (Just drop it if you need to by hitting your item button from a standing position) where it not only does some sizable damage to either of the bosses, you'll get an ''achievement'' just for bringing it there once.

It's a given that these items side with quality in the duality of QuantityVsQuality.

** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemHeroes'' has Stamina Potions, Dueling Crests, and Light's Blessings. The Light's Blessing is the worst of them all as you can only get them through certain circumstances. And you can only get three of them through the My Nintendo rewards system.

*** Nine of the thirteen Heroes Relics are this. To repair, they require Umbral Steel, which is a rare ore found by completing optional battles, but their durability is usually no more than 25 and they will often hit twice. The only exceptions are the accessories (Thyrsus, the Aegis Shield, and the Rafail Gem), as they do not have weapon durability, and the Sword of the Creator, which can be restored simply by Resting on a given Saturday for +5 durability per rest.

*** The Champions' weapons themselves hit this trope ''despite'' the ability to have replacements crafted when they break; in no small part because, being inherited from the Champions, they have great sentimental value in and out of universe. [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTearsOfTheKingdom the sequel]] addressed this by having the weapons crafted for you on-demand rather than being heirlooms, and providing a way to re-acquire all other "unique" weapons after they break.

*** The Champions' weapons themselves hit this trope ''despite'' the ability to have replacements crafted when they break, in no small part because, being inherited from the Champions, they have great sentimental value in and out of universe. [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTearsOfTheKingdom the sequel]] addressed this by having the weapons crafted for you on-demand rather than being heirlooms, and providing a way to re-acquire all other "unique" weapons after they break.

* ''Franchise/DeusEx'':

** The Aum Staff in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemShadowDragon'' is unique in that, in a game where {{Permadeath}} is in full effect, it is capable of bringing any deceased allied unit back to life. As a trade-off, however, it can only be used '''''[[ItOnlyWorksOnce once]]''''' (or five times in Book 2 of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemMysteryOfTheEmblem''), and it can only be used by certain characters, without whom the staff is completely useless.

* Creator/ProZD made a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgU4Oum8SLg video]] parodying gamers who are so stingy with non-purchaseable items that they just hoard them and don't use them even when absolutely necessary.

*** The Champions' weapons themselves hit this trope ''despite'' the ability to have replacements crafted when they break, in no small part because, being inherited from the Champions, they have great sentimental value in and out of universe. [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTearsOfTheKingdom the sequel]] addressed this by having the weapons crafted for you on-demand rather than being heirlooms.

* Using intercepted and decrypted information can give you a tremendous advantage, but it also blatantly demonstrates to the enemy that you can break their encryption if that's the only way you could have known. In the case of the famous [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimmermann_Telegram Zimmermann Telegram]], the British created a cover story for how they got the information and the Germans were none the wiser.

** 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.

* ''Film/SkyCaptainAndTheWorldOfTomorrow'': Polly has exactly one shot left in her camera... which she doesn't use (in spite of seeing a number of things considered impossible in the setting) because she might find something even more jaw-dropping. In the final scene of the film she finally tkes the picture [[spoiler: only for Sky Captain to reveal she forgot to take the lenscap off.]]

** During the transition from paper to plastic 5 and 10-pound notes, new notes with certain serial numbers became extremely collectible and worth far more than their face value, making them basically unspendable. Serial numbers of special interest included ones that began with AA and ones that began with AK47.

* ''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]].

* In ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar'', Miyuki's family is quite poor, so he thought it would be nice to give his sister (Kei) a thousand-yen bill for her birthday. Yet, Kei is as frugal as the rest of her family [[note]]and she has [[DontYouDarePityMe issues]] with her brother[[/note]], so even though there are plenty of things she wants to buy, she doesn't use the money until chapter 119. Even then, it's indirectly for Miyuki's benefit: keeping her schoolmates from seeing his horrendous crimes against fashion.

** 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.

** Lastly, [[spoiler:the Instagib Rifle]]. You only find halfway through one level, [[spoiler:the remains of the Vortex Rikers]], and works exactly like it did in the base game, being [[spoiler:a OneHitKill Shock Rifle]]. You're even given a chance to experience that power [[spoiler:when a horde of ''[[BossInMookClothing Skaarj Lords]]'' appear in the ship]]. Then [[spoiler:you're [[hereWeGoAgain imprisoned]] and [[BagOfSpilling stripped off your weaponry again]] at the end of the level]], and never get to use that weapon again.

* 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.]]

** Deathwing is a minion that, when played, will destroy EVERYTHING on the board on the spot. The catch is that doing so will cost 10 mana (the maximum the game allows at any point), and also discards your entire hand. Pretty much the only time you will see it getting played is when someone is desperate enough to destroy every other card they have just to wipe out the entire board instantly and hope beyond hope that the opponent doesn't have an effective answer.

*** The Soulcube 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 the expansion ''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.
** Similar to its handling of the BFG, the Chainsaw in ''VideoGame/Doom2016'', was turned into a special weapon that ran on a limited amount of petrol, rather than the EmergencyWeapon it was in previous games. It would OneHitKill any non-boss enemy, causing them to explode into a fountain of extra ammo for all your other weapons, but the bigger the enemy the more petrol it needed, compelling you to conserve its use for hairy situations like when a Baron of Hell is about to rip your head off, or simply when you'd used up all your other ammo and desperately ''needed'' the refill.

** ''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.

** ''VideoGame/QuakeII'' turns the powerups[[note]]QuadDamage, [[InvincibilityPowerup Invulnerability]], Environment Suit, Rebreather and Silencer; with ''The Reckoning'' adding the [[QuadDamage Dualfire Damage]]; and ''Ground Zero'' adding the [[QuadDamage Double Damage]], IR Goggles and Defender Sphere in the campaign[[/note]] into 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. Plus, in the harder difficulty levels, you can only carry one of each item at a time. The awesome part? When used together, they turn the game 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.

* This is pretty much a defining rule of the [=MOBA=] genre; any player character with a single big ability that comes with a long cooldown will always suffer from this. Many players would rather let themselves or an ally die than use these abilities in any situation other than a 5v5 team fight - indeed, part of the genre's massive learning curve is figuring out which situations it's okay to use a two or more minute cooldown ultimate in.

** ''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 [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil4Remake 2023 remake]] makes it worse by inflating the Rocket Launcher's sale price five-fold.

* The Smart Bomb in ''VideoGame/AlienSwarm''. When you unlock it, you can carry only one. It's pretty much the same as the Hornet Barrage, but 5 of them. It fires so many damn rockets that a huge swarm can easily be dispatched with the item. However, since you can only hold 1, you'll have a tough time figuring out when is the best time to use it.

** 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.

* ''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.