Amplifier Artifact

"The Eliacube is the acme of Eliatrope magic. Grougaloragran doesn't know all its secrets, but he knows that its main power is to increase the magical strength of the one using it, up to make him the equal of a god."

— Grougaloragran, Wakfu, "The Eliacube"

What's crystalline, covered in ancient glowing runes, looks great when set in a necklace or staff, and is worthless to a Muggle (save as a paperweight)?

Give up? It's this trope!

The Amplifier Artifact is one of the more useful, practical, and powerful accouterments in Fantasy and Speculative Fiction. It doesn't grant new super powers like a Ring of Power, Super Serum, Amulet of Concentrated Awesome or other form of Applied Phlebotinum, what it does is give the owner or wearer (this distinction is not a light one) a small or titanic boost to whatever powers they already possess, at times even activating latent ones.

Likely candidates for Amplifier Artifact are ancient swords, pendants, jewels, sets of armor, staves, petrified body parts and rings among others. It's not unheard of for disembodied organs and appendages to become Amplifier Artifacts if part of the owner's power is sealed inside it. You can also expect these to be weak spots in One Winged Angels and thus exceedingly evil Artifacts of Doom. It doesn't help that for some reason prophecies love to wax apocalyptic about how once Dark Lord Zerogeddon gets The Eye of Sorrow, his full powers will be restored and he will be unstoppable. Not entirely unrelated is the tendency of heroes to eschew these, somehow equating ancient relics of forgotten power with Hard Work Hardly Works. Still, a respectable amount of heroes will rely on the Sword of Plot Advancement to complete their quest. Regardless of being a hero or villain, you can count on them losing the artifact when it comes time for the final showdown.

Compare Upgrade Artifact for weak characters becoming stronger through an item. Also see Super-Empowering for people who have this effect. See Magic Feather for when someone thinks an object has this effect, but it doesn't. That can go the other way as well, though- sometimes characters will find they can use their powers without the artifact that supposedly grants them, eschew it as a Magic Feather, and then realize that they can do even better with their new-found self-confidence AND the artifact. See also the Place of Power, where the environment can serve as an amplifier. See also Magical Accessory for other types of power granting jewelry. It two or more artifacts are needed, they're probably Counterpart Artifacts.

A Sub-Trope of Magic Enhancement.

Not to be confused with "artifacts" (distortions) introduced by an audio amplifier, one of which led directly to metal.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• In Bleach, the Hougyoku grants incredible powers, but only up to what is possible (no matter how improbable) for the subject to achieve on his own. In other words, the subject's maximum potential.
• A Certain Scientific Railgun has a mysterious sound file called Level Upper which amplifies the powers of Level 0 and Level 1 espers to actually usable levels... for a short time, after which they fall into a coma. It turns out that this is because Level Upper functions by hypnotically altering the user's AIM field so that it links with similar fields into a distributed supercomputer, and the "network admin" is capable of shutting down their minds for more processing power.
• The "Meteor Shard", a Plot Device recovered from Hell's Gate that changes hands a few times in Darker than Black. Towards the end of the first series, Amber breaks it in pieces among her followers and uses the bulk of it to power the network of Dolls that guide Hei through the Gate, but later she spontaneously pulls the complete Shard out of her pocket due to the strange properties of the Gate. Then, Hei uses it to enhance his power to Reality Warper levels, enabling him to alter matter on a quantum level. In backstory, one such thing was used to make a good chunk of South America completely inaccessible.
• The Wind Staff in Dragon Knights functions this way for Cesia and her wind powers, even allowing her to resurrect people.
• Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai: Late in the series, Dai receives an upgraded sheath for the Sword of Dai designed to synergise with his Dragon Knight abilities - if he casts a spell into the weapon and then re-sheaths it, the spell's power will increase over time. This can upgrade Raidein (the strongest lightning spell Dai can cast) into Gigadein (the strongest lightning spell period), allowing him to execute the Dragon Knight's Finishing Move "Giga Break".
• In Fullmetal Alchemist, urban legend held that the State Alchemists' pocket watches, engraved with the Fuhrer's Seal, enhanced the power of the bearer's alchemy. They don't actually do anything, though — they're just watches. In Fullmetal Alchemist (2003), though, some of them contain unfinished Philosopher's Stones.
  • In the manga, Philosopher's Stones allow the user to get around the Law of Equivalent Exchange and obtaining more than what they sacrificed (turning a small rose into a big sunflower, for instance). Though it's later revealed that this isn't true - the Stone consumes part of its own energy to make the exchange fair. Additionally, the Stones make alchemy much easier, allowing the user to perform transmutations without a circle or clapping their own hands.
• Futari wa Pretty Cure has the Rainbow Bracelets, which give Cure Black and Cure White a pretty major boost to their abilities on top of granting access to the attack Rainbow Storm.
  • The sequel season, Max Heart, gives them the Sparkle Bracelets, which also provide a boost and greatly upgrade their Marble Screw attack.
• Most Sacred Gears in High School D×D have elements of this, but Issei's Boosted Gear is a textbook example. Boosted Gear doubles the user's power every ten seconds without limit, it's explicitly stated he could overpower God if he gets enough boosts. However, Issei's body is initially too frail to handle more than three or four boosts, and the base power it's doubling is minuscule to begin with. A big deal is made of the fact he has to work hard and make himself stronger before his Sacred Gear can really make him any more powerful.
• The "Shikon no Tama" or "Jewel of Four Souls" in Inuyasha is a jewel that increases a demon's strength. It can also be used by evil humans, although the stronger you are naturally the more useful it is to you. Trying to use it for good deeds, whether you are human or yokai, inevitably turns out badly.
• Lyrical Nanoha:
  • The Relics, super-high energy crystals from StrikerS. The one implanted in Vivio in particular was mentioned in Japanese DVD inserts to not only boost her magic on its own but to also allow her to connect to the Saint's Cradle and fuel herself with nigh-infinite power. And yes, as ViVid revealed, her Adult Form is inherent to her and not something given to her by the Relic.
  • The Unison Devices: cute little foot-high flying Artificial Human girls who can synchronize with magic-users to boost their powers and add elemental effects. So far, we've only seen two, Reinforce Zwei and Agito.
  • Devices in general serve this purpose, as they don't allow people to cast magic but rather are essentially Magitek calculators that process the formulas for constructing magic circles so the mage doesn't have to do it in their head in the heat of battle.
• In The Mage Will Master Magic Efficiently in His Second Life, catalyst are needed to use some spells or to make others easier. An example are Teleport rings, which make it possible to use movement spells easier.
• Negima! Magister Negi Magi:
  • The Library Island arc has the Baka Rangers searching for a magic book that supposedly makes the holder smarter, all for the purpose of passing their finals.
  • One of the effects of the Pactios is the partner getting a magical power boost.
  • There's also Negi's collection of magical artifacts like his father's staff or Eva's ring.
  • Ako's artifact (an enormous syringe with a very large and sharp needle) can significantly boost all of her target's physical and magical abilities.
• In Pokémon Adventures, Yellow is a human example, as when she gets angry, her team of usually wimpy Pokemon has their levels jump up to the mid-80s in response.
• Subverted in Pokémon: The First Movie. Giovanni offers Mewtwo some Powered Armour that would "focus" his psychic powers. What it actually does is suppress them as they are too powerful for Giovanni to handle.
• Rebuild World: Nanomachine-based Healing Potions from the Precursors called the Old World repair a human body based on a certain set of standards that, thanks to the Old World's Transhuman augmentation, are stronger than a modern-day human's. The way the potential of a Super-Strength Differently Powered Individual is awoken is taking these while putting great stress on the body to make them repair it to those standards. For Akira, since he gets taught to use compressed time (more grounded Bullet Time) using his transhuman brain, using the ability causes brain damage, so old world medicine fortifies his brain while healing it to make him able to use the ability better.
• Sailor Moon: This is explicitly the power of the Golden Crystal in the 1990s' anime. It can boost a sufficiently powerful individual's abilities to godlike levels. It also doesn't require a single user; it can respond to the wishes of an entire planet, making humanity collectively strong enough to break the previous holder's Mass Hypnosis and destroy her Mook army.
• The Seven Deadly Sins has the Sacred Treasures of the Seven Deadly Sins. They don't increase the amount of power you have, but rather, how much of your own power you can draw out at a time. King describes their use best:
  Let's say this lake is the power of one of the Sins... If you use your palm, how much water would you be able to scoop? Right, no matter how much water you have, with just your bare hands, this is what you get. But if you use a weapon, you'd get something like a glass or mug's amount of power. And then... If you use a sacred treasure, you can get a house's worth of power. In other words, you could draw power incomparable with what you could before!!
• Slayers:
  • The first story arc revolves around Lina accidentally getting ahold of the Philosopher's Stone, which she describes as "a super magic amplifier." Naturally, the resident Big Bad needs it to complete his scheme.
  • The four talismans she bought from Xellos. The results of her amplified Dragon Slaves are rather impressive. In the novels, the "Demon Bloods" use the power of Ruby Eye and the Dark Lords of three other universes — one per gem. They allowed the previous owner (even though he was another container for a piece of Ruby Eye) to cast spells that normally require more power than any human mage can provide.
  • The Sword of Light is used to amplify and focus a spell. As is, it dices lesser monsters and weaker true Mazoku effortlessly, but more powerful Mazoku can just grab the glow and hurl the wielder like a toy. The same foe, but the sword absorbed Dragon Slave? Single Clean Cut, and no smoking crater. Kills anything up to Dark Lords and works even with the spells Man Was Not Meant To Know. In novels, it's also known as Gorunnova, and it's one of the five weapons of Dark Star, no less. As the source of Black Magic, the Dark Lord has no such problems, but Gaav mocked Lina claiming that a mere human like her is harmless, only her sister could power up Gorunnova enough to hurt him.
• It turns out that one of the reasons Brew was wanted so badly by both sides in Soul Eater was its ability to amplify soul wavelengths. Mosquito is not impressed when it turns out the real artifact was in the back pocket of Death the Kid.
• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Simon's Core Drill is the key that lets him pilot Lagann, but it also channels Simon's innate Spiral Energy when he touches it, allowing Lagann to accomplish crazy feats like forming Gurren Lagann.
• In Witch Hat Atelier The ancient city had a magic mirror designed to amplify the effects of glyphs, with Qifrey describing it as ancient war magic. A warmth stone meant only to warm skin ends up turning hot enough to melt gold, killing the people who were turned into it.
• Witch Hunter Robin's fragment of wisdom has this effect unintentionally and tends to give the bearer Power Incontinence with it.
• In YuYu Hakusho, Kuwabara is given the Trial Sword (actually a hilt), which for him, forms a more powerful version of his Spirit Sword while boosting his strength to new levels.

Comic Books

• In B.P.R.D., Liz uses an ancient Hyperborean thing that kinda looks like a light bulb with a spiky thing on top to amplify her pyrokinesis to the point where she can singlehandedly incinerate the mountain-sized Katha-Hem.
• Captain Britain (Brian Braddock) was originally dependent on his Amulet of Right for his strength, and his Star Scepter for flight. When Merlyn gave Brian a new costume, he integrated those items into the suit, and then when he had to bring Brian Back from the Dead, he remade Brian's body so that the powers were a part of him, but the suit still served as an amplifier, increasing his abilities while he wore it. Brian's powers were also tied to the British Isles and its link to Otherworld, so the suit also allowed him to keep his powers while away from Britain; when the suit was destroyed in Inferno (1988) and he was stranded in New York, his powers waned until he could return home. Eventually, his powers evolved again so that they were dependent on his own confidence, but whatever suit he's wearing still tends to serve as an amplifier/backup power source.
  • Several of the Captain Britain Corps' costumes have the same power-granting or power-amplifying abilities, such as Kaptain Briton's (which was reused by Betsy during her short-lived stint replacing Brian as Captain Britain) and the late Captain Marshall's (which Brian wore for a good chunk of the first Excalibur series after his prior suit was destroyed).
• Doctor Strange: Strange has some artifacts which function this way and others that do nothing he couldn't do without them (though it frees up his concentration or power to use the artifact rather than his own strength) including the Cloak Of Levitation which lets him... levitate, and fly, the Wand of Watoomb, the Book of the Vishanti, the Darkhold, the Purple Gem, and anything with "-of Agamotto" at the end of it, as well as many other mystical objects.
• Green Lantern:
  • It's been shown multiple times that wearing multiple rings can multiply the effective power of the wearer (as Hal Jordan did during Emerald Twilight). The Alpha Lanterns use this to police the other lanterns by wearing two rings and internalizing their power batteries.
  • Blue Lanterns have a symbiotic relationship with Green Lanterns. The willpower of the Greens is necessary to allow Blue Lanterns to do more than just fly and project personal force fields, but a Blue Lantern can also charge a Green Lantern's Ring to 200 percent capacity.
• The Reality Gem of the Infinity Gems, most famous for when Thanos gathered them to make The Infinity Gauntlet. It has other uses, but its prime use is to heavily boost the power of other Infinity Gems, plus make it easier for less-than-godlike beings to use the gems, to the point that the Magus was defeated in Infinity War when the heroes were able to switch the Reality Gem for a powerless replica.
  • There's also the Power Gem, which, true to its name, grants access to every form of power that can be said to exist and is primarily used to amplify the other Gems. It makes whoever wields it invincibly strong, capable of making someone strong enough to destroy a planet through pure brute force.
• In Judge Dredd, "psi-amplifiers" exist that exponentially increase the user's psychic power. The downside is they kill the user after they are disconnected from the machine making them essentially a one-use item. They are illegal but Psi-Division keeps one available for dire emergencies.
• The Ruby Skarab, a magical scarab in the Marvel Universe, once held by the mystical WW2 hero the Scarlet Scarab, until he lost it. Then it got tussled over by several powerful entities, briefly turning up in the pages of Ms. Marvel (1977). Carol Danvers briefly got her hands on it, rendering her capable of punching out gods. Not a good combination with her blaming one of those gods for the (apparent) death of a friend of hers, and consequently being in a state of Unstoppable Rage.
• The Silver Surfer can actually fly without his board, but it's shown to be less effective and uncomfortable for him.
• The Sword of Acorns in Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) had this ability when used by powered individuals, such as Mammoth Mogul and Ixis Naugus.
• The Mighty Thor has the Belt of Strength, which doubles his strength and endurance, and Mjölnir, which focuses Thor's innate Elemental Powers. The Belt is straight from the source material. If need be, Thor could increase the boosting effect by tightening the belt.
• Wonder Woman has been shown from time to time using the Gauntlets of Atlas which multiply the wearer's strength and stamina tenfold. Given that Wonder Woman has Superman-class strength to begin with, she's devastating when she wears them. These were eventually passed on. She also used to have Sandals of Hermes that amplified her speed and gave her flight but her powers have been upgraded to include greater speed and flight.
  • When Artemis became the new Wonder Woman in Wonder Woman: The Contest, she was given the Gauntlets and Sandals to increase her strength and allow her flight while using the title.
• Although it's technological rather than magical, Cerebro fits this role in X-Men. It boosts the range and, sometimes, the power level of Professor Xavier's telepathic abilities.

Fan Works

• The soulstone horns from The Blooming Moon Chronicles allow ponies to use magic which they would not have been able to use before, and in some cases, act as prosthetics.
• Child of the Storm:
  • The canonical examples of Mjolnir and the self-created foci of a wandless wizard (e.g. Harry Dresden). In both cases, it isn't impossible for the owners to use their powers without them, but it's rather easier and more efficient.
  • Wanded wizards are heavily dependant on their wands, which are useless to anyone without magic (and not much use to anyone magical who hasn't secured their allegiance).
  • Cerebro vastly expands the range of a psychic's powers, allowing the likes of Professor Xavier and Jean Grey to reach Asgard from Earth (though it later transpires that Jean doesn't actually need it, underlining her vast raw power), and Betsy Braddock to intimidate the Shadow King into backing down after a brutal fight. However, it comes with dangers, as Betsy admits to herself that she was bluffing - trying to channel that power surge while exhausted could easily have burned her up.
  • Ván, the Sword of Frey, constructed by the Alliance of Realms during the war against Surtur out of vibranium and mithril to act as a focus for the powers of Yggdrasil - what's now known as the Odinforce. It could also absorb Phoenix fire, allowing the wielder to (in theory) No-Sell the worst of Surtur's attacks and go toe to toe with him. Unfortunately, no one's seen it for a million years - the fact that going by the replica on Frey's statue, it was the most ordinary-looking Cool Sword you could possibly imagine, doesn't help.
    • These days, Gungnir functions as the focus for the Odinforce.
  • Harry gets a gauntlet from Diana in the first book that allows him to focus power through it into a shield, saving him from having to consciously think about it. Since he's comparatively vulnerable despite the fact he's a developing Magic Knight, is important.
• In The Dashverse, it's revealed in Hot Heads, Cold Hearts, and Nerves of Steel that when Sombra converted Tambelon into the Crystal Empire, he designed it so that the whole thing could drain the Crystal Ponies of their power and transfer it to him, making the whole Empire his Amplifier Artifact.
• The potion Twilight is working on in Double Rainboom seems to be this. It enhances a pony's special talent to ludicrous extremes, allowing them to pull off feats they normally couldn't. Needless to say, Rainbow Dash can't resist giving it a try, and it ends up increasing her speed and durability to the point where she smashes through the ceiling of Twi's tree home by accident after she tries it out, flies around the town at incredible speeds even for her, allows her to fly into low orbit, and gives her the strength to pull off the titular double rainboom that proceeds to tear open a wormhole to another universe. Granted, it does have the nasty side effect of temporarily taking away a pony's natural abilities after it starts to wear off, but it still manages to be an exaggeration of this trope. Considering what happens later in the animation, it's been theorized that said potion is actually an unstable form of Chemical X.
• In Dusk's Dawn the ring on Star Whistle's hoof amplifies her magic, which causes the windstorm and makes her summon magic tornadoes.
• Turns out the Moon Dial in Futari Wa Pretty Cure Blue Moon does more than just erase people from existence and reset time. Kainatrol, after erasing Eiender, commandeers it late in the story and undergoes a huge usefulness boost. The only thing it won't work on is somebody with one of its pieces, though its effectiveness in general is in question considering the existence of echoes.
• The machine Nathaniel had Burner make in Luz Belos: Princess of the Boiling Isles enhances his magic to God-Mode levels, this being his cheat to try and become more powerful than Emperor Belos.
• Mega Man: Defender of the Human Race:
  • Wily used his protocol disruptor's signal inducer for Splash Woman, greatly enhancing her brainwashing powers.
  • The Jadous Sphere and its shards can greatly power up robots.
• While the Butterfly Miraculous usually gives powerless people superpowers, since Everyone Is a Super in My Miraculous Academia, Izuku uses it to amplify their preexisting abilities.
• In the Pokemon fanfic Natural Liberated, N's ability to use the attacks of Pokemon is amplified by a device called the Natural Machine, which is the cube on his belt in his artwork. It is made of miniaturized Technical Machines combined into one unit.
• The Self-Insert Fanfic The New Math has amplifier artifacts in the form of Devices, which boost the ability of a mage to create and power spells.
• The Ojamajo Doremi Fan Fic Ojamajo Doremi: Rise of the Shadows has the Seven Seals. They not only empower the villains who were using them for their Evil Plan but they were also used by the Queen to go into a Super Mode and save the day.
• The Golden Arrow Pins worn by student council members in the Hetalia: Axis Powers Highschool AU fanfiction Outcast amplify the wearer's natural abilities to a super-human degree. They were designed to help student council members serve the school by bringing out their best qualities — so a teenager like Russia is strong enough to fold metal with his bare hands, America's charisma and courage turn him into a peerless leader, and England's spiritual sensitivity evolves into full-blown "black magic" that lets him contact the dead and cast spells.
• The Rigel Black Chronicles: Leo's crystal knife strengthens his spells when his wand is inside it (as well as protecting his wand from damage). He only uses it when he's in a serious fight for high stakes, though.
• A Shadow of the Titans has the Talisman of Hwan the Bright, which provides a massive boost to the magic of whoever uses it. When in Jinx's possession, her usual powers go from small-scale bad luck to bending Murphy's Law in her favor.
• In Sweetie's Mansion, Sweetie was given a box that contains a power of an alicorn by the ghost of Madame Fleur so she could use it to bring back Twilight, Applejack, and Fluttershy from being trapped in paintings.
• Anything made out of platinum in the Triptych Continuum. While all other metals conduct various forms of magic with greater or lesser efficiency, platinum will conduct any form of magic (unicorn, Pegasus, or earth pony), with greater than 100% efficiency. This allows for the making of phenomenally powerful magitek, and devices that will run forever without recharging. On the other hand, platinum is also notoriously dangerous to work with. If you get your crafting slightly off with any other metal, the device will be slightly less efficient, or at worst it just plain won't work. But with plantinum, it will continue to amplify the magic cast on it but will be unable to discharge that energy, causing it to simply build up until it exceeds the metal's storage capacity.
• In With Strings Attached, the Vasyn turns out to be capable of vastly amplifying spells cast through it. So does Paul, for that matter.

Films — Animation

• DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp: The villain Merlock possesses an emerald amulet that, when used in conjunction with the Genie's lamp, lifts the Three Wishes restriction, essentially giving him limitless Reality Warper powers by proxy.
• The Gorg super chip from Home (2015), which supercharges any device it's plugged into.
• My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks:
  • The ruby pendants worn by the Dazzlings amplify their magic in the human world, allowing them to inflict a Hate Plague on the people with their Mind-Control Music, and gain power through absorbing said negative emotions. Once the pendants are destroyed in the final battle, they lose their magic abilities and can no longer sing in tune. The Gems are a prominent motif of the movie, notably in the opening credits.
  • In the climax, Vinyl Scratch's DJ booth and bass speakers act as this for the Rainbooms, basically weaponizing their Magic Music to blast at the Dazzlings' Siren avatars.
• In Turning Red, the coin sword that Mr. Gao wields appears to amplify the magical properties of the moonlight during a lunar eclipse as it emits a red beam when aligned with the moon and the person undergoing the red moon ritual.

Films — Live-Action

• Aquaman (2018): The Trident of Atlan boosts Arthur's aquatic telepathy to the point he can command legions of the Trench and make the shark mounts turn on their riders.
• X-Men Film Series: The Cerebro supercomputer boosts telepathy.

Gamebooks

• Lone Wolf: The Psychic Ring and the Grey Crystal Ring. They are implied to be useful only because Lone Wolf has strong Psychic Powers already. Their uses are very situational, however.

Literature

• A Certain Magical Index: Aleister Crowley's Blasting Rod acts like this, amplifying any object's or being's native power to ten times what their opponent thinks it is. On its own, it's a fairly simple item, but since it's spoken of as a super-powerful magical weapon being used by one of the most powerful sorcerers in the world, people immediately think of it as extremely powerful to begin with, which it then amplifies even further. Even worse, during rematches, the Blasting Rod will increase the power to ten times what the opponent remembered from the first fight.
• Spikard Rings from The Chronicles of Amber — incredibly powerful rings of ancient and mysterious origins, connected to multiple sources of magic powers located around The Multiverse, that allow their users to create any magical spells they need in an instant - more practical and powerful than most magic in the universe. Merlin theorizes that at full power a person armed with one can even damage manifestations of Pattern and Lorgus. However they seem to be addictive and can be themselves targeted by any magic - Dara and Mandor enhance a spikard, set for Merlin to pick, with mind-controlling spells and it would work, if Bleys hadn't replaced it with another spikard.
• In The Cosmere 'Verse by Brandon Sanderson:
  • Mistborn:
    • Duralumin works like this for an Allomancer's powers, causing them to expend all the metals they are currently burning in one explosive burst.
    • Nicrosil can be used to amplify another Allomancer's powers in the same way as duralumin is used for one's own. This can either be used to buff allies or unexpectedly hit enemies with more power than they can handle.
  • In Dawnshard, this is The Reveal: the Dawnshards are four divine Commands that amplify other magic systems to a planetary scale, enough so that they were used to shatter the god Adonalsium. Rysn accidentally merges with one, but because she has no magic of her own, it's effectively useless for her.
  • In Elantris the entire city of Elantris plus the four surrounding cities make a giant Aon Rao, which greatly powers Aon Dor and it was the breaking of this amplifier via an earthquake that caused the city to fall and the citizens to become The Undead.
• In Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover stories, matrix crystals could greatly increase psionic abilities.
• The Dresden Files: A wizard's "focus" is an item enchanted in such a way that makes casting spells easier. They aren't required, but most wizards carry at least one around anyway. Harry's full toolkit involves a staff (for most spells), a blasting rod (the fire spell he uses for most direct "kaboom" attacks. Can be done with staff, but the rod's better as it's specifically designed to channel that one fire spell into a tight beam of Death Ray.), a shield bracelet (force field for protection), force-collecting rings (every time he moves some kinetic energy is collected. He can release it as a powerful shockwave.), and a pentacle necklace (often uses it as flashlight. However, with faith-based magic the symbol's gotta be something you believe in; a symbol of magic works for him as a cross would work for a Christian against some breeds of vampire among other things.) All these simply make it easier to call up and direct power; he's had to use many spells without the appropriate focusing tools, but finds it much more difficult, draining, and harder to control. He gets a bit better at it as time goes on, and these days is almost never lucky enough to have his full arsenal at hand. Also, Elaine carries a chain, and Molly carries a pair of wands.
  • The strongest wizard seen thus far, Ebenezer McCoy, carries only a staff. But Harry is absolutely astounded by what that wizard is capable of. In Peace Talks, they come to blows, and Harry holds his own only because McCoy is holding back. When they fight together, Harry can barely handle one or two of their attackers. McCoy handles the other eleven. And when restrained, still helps Harry when he's overwhelmed. That's the power of a centuries-old wizard.
• This is what the shadowlight does in Duty Calls. Exposure to it awakens latent psyker abilities, but without proper containment, it warps you to death.
• Bluestone is essential to the Singers in The Echorium Sequence, as it amplifies their Songs of Power. Its evil counterpart khiz-crystal shares this property.
• The Elric Saga: Aside from its other powers as a soul-eating, universe-annihilating supersword, Stormbringer boosted Elric's magical and physical strength, compensating for the Albino Emperor's own fragile health.
• The Empirium Trilogy: Eliana forges a casting in the hopes that it'll help her tap into the empirium more easily. It doesn't work that well at first, but as she slowly accepts her abilities, she obtains more control over them.
• The Girl Who Would Be King has a stone carved with three rings and a raven, which increases Bonnie and Lola's power when they're in contact with it. Bonnie eventually discovers that it's not the stone itself that amplifies their powers, but the symbol carved on it.
• All wands (most notably the Elder Wand) in Harry Potter amplify the strength of a wizard.
• The children's novel, The Hedge Wizard, is about a young boy who set out to become a wizard. He turns out to have no real talent for magic but is revealed to function as one of these, greatly amplifying the magical power of any other wizard(s) he is in contact with or any spell he joins in casting (spells he tries to cast on his own are usually either weak or backfire-prone)
• Any jewel in the Inheritance Cycle can be turned into such an artifact. Just load them up with energy, and you can draw on that energy later to boost your power.
• The Lens of Arisia, from E. E. "Doc" Smith's Lensman series, fits this trope. Kim Kinnison has vast psychic powers on his own after being converted into a Second-Stage lensman, but his Lens gives him vastly hugely mind-bogglingly big psychic powers.
• In The Licanius Trilogy, Augurs and Gifted can use concentration Vessels, which allow them to concentrate better. This in turn allows them to design better concentration Vessels, which allows them to concentrate even better, and so on.
• The One Ring in The Lord of the Rings was said to act like this: it granted its wearer power based on the wearer's stature. The more powerful you were, the more powerful the Ring would make you. It was originally created by Sauron as a means to make his already formidable Mind Control powers strong enough to take over the other Rings of Power (and through them, their wearers). That it also served as a Soul Jar for Sauron was a nice little side-effect. This is why it was justified that the little hobbit Frodo would be the one to carry it to Mordor instead of someone more powerful like Gandalf. Worst case scenario, Gandalf with the Ring would become just as terrible as Sauron, while a hobbit would just become a little ghoul like Gollum.
• In Loyal Enemies, the Staff of Fertility is an elven artifact that amplifies their already inherent ability to shape the natural world around them and allows them to grow their city naturally. The downside is that it also acts as a Cosmic Keystone for their part of Ash Grove and thus, its theft is a really big deal. It's shaped like a non-assuming piece of wood.
• The Necromancer Chronicles has the magic rings worn by accomplished magic-users allows them to bind spirits and ghosts into the stones, which amplify their abilities since they serve as an additional power source.
• In Renegades, Ace Anarchy's helmet could amplify his powers, turning him from "merely" a powerful telekinetic to someone who can uproot entire buildings from their foundations. To this day, no one can replicate it because its creator, who could create strange metal from raw energy, has been murdered.
• Retired Witches Mysteries: Molly's amulet, inherited from her mother and said to be a gift from a lesser sea god (which is proven to be the case in book 2), which enhances her magic.
• In Shadow of the Conqueror, sunstones aren't just a Fantastic Light Source, but can also increase the power of Lightbringing and Lightbinding magic while acting as a Kryptonite Factor for the Shade.
• A magical golden gyroscope in Skate the Thief helps Skate use a Crystal Ball, a necessary aid since she has no practice in using magic at all before she tries spying with it.
• Alan Dean Foster's Spellsinger series: Zig-zagged with Jon-Tom's dual-necked, guitar-like duar. In the first few novels, it's treated as a fairly common item that acts as a focal point for his latent magical powers. However, in later books, the duar itself is the source of the magic and is treated as a rare and valuable item. It's unclear whether this is only a Retcon or the duar actually became enchanted in the course of the early books.
• The Spellmonger Series has Irionite/Witchstone, an incredibly rare form of amber that can amplify magical energy by a ridiculous degree. It is so powerful that just owning a piece basically makes you more powerful than every non-irionite owning mage on the planet.
• The jewelry made of the Staryk's silver coins in Spinning Silver. The coins on their own fascinate anyone who catches sight of them (even thieves who intended to sneak them off the jeweler's workbench). Irina, who had one Staryk grandparent but has no visual indication of her ancestry (looking much more like her hard-faced father than an ice fae), becomes the World's Most Beautiful Woman when she wears it. More importantly, wearing two of the three pieces allows her to cross through reflective surfaces into the Staryk realm, which she uses to escape from the demon inhabiting her new husband the tsar until she can work out how to deal with it.
• The Dominion Jewel in Song of the Lioness. It's been used through history as a tool by benevolent rulers and tyrants alike.
• The Kaiburr Crystal in the Star Wars Legends novel Splinter of the Mind's Eye can greatly increase the Force ability of any Force user who touches it. However, it only worked so long as the crystal remained near the temple of its origin.
• Several in the Star Trek Novel 'Verse.
  • In Star Trek: The Lost Era, there are the masks upon which Oralian recitation masks are based. The mask in Well of Souls is the best example. Useless to those who are not psi-sensitive, it enhances and focuses the talents of empaths and latent telepaths. It is designed to allow members of its planet's ruling family to enhance their psi talents to the degree that their mind can serve as a vessel for the spirit lifeform Uramtali. Without the mask, these talents would no longer be adequate, as the ruler's genes were diluted by centuries of inbreeding. In the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Relaunch, there's the pagh'varam (Bajoran for "soul key") which also serves to boost latent telepathy. It's actually a fragment of a Bajoran Orb of the Prophets.
  • The Selakar from Star Trek: Department of Temporal Investigations use crystals that amplify their psionic talents.
• The Wheel of Time: angreal and sa'angreal, magical Lost Technology that boosts the amount of power a channeler can draw upon. They usually have buffers to prevent the user from going too far, but not always. The latter are just a stronger variety of the former. The strongest are a male-female pair whose combined capacity could crack open the planet; when they finally get put into use, every channeler on the planet can sense it. The runners-up include the sword Callandor (usable by men, primarily wielded by Rand), Vora's wand (usable by women, primarily wielded by Egwene) and the scepter Sakarnen (usable by men, wielded by Demandred).
• In World of Ptavvs by Larry Niven, Kzanol the Slaver attempts to retrieve his amplifier helmet, which will increase his natural ability to control the minds of a relatively few slaves to the point where he will be able to mentally control the entire solar system.
• The Young Wizards series has the Book of Night with Moon, a supernatural book which describes the entirety of existence. Rather than increasing the strength of the spells a wizard casts, it makes it so that even the most complex and difficult of spells are easy to cast. However, some spells did receive a power boost just from being cast near the book, such as the time shift spell working better than expected.
• The Zombie Knight features Haqq's shield. When used by a servant, it boosts their passive defense to match that of Abbas Saqqaf, a powerful Sandlord servant who helped make the thing. The more powerful you are, the longer you can safely use it at a stretch. For Hector, that currently works out to...six minutes per day. Although even without using its power, it's still an awesome shield.

Live-Action TV

• Kamen Rider has a few shows where a particular upgrade works like this:
  • Kamen Rider Ryuki and Knight's Survive cards don't directly use an attack or skill, but instead give them new armor and weapons that increase the overall power of all their other cards.
  • The face cards (Fusion Jack, Absorb Queen, and Evolution King) in Kamen Rider Blade, like the Survive cards, directly increase the user's physical strength and the effectiveness of their other cards.
  • The Armed Saber in Kamen Rider Hibiki amplifies the wielder's natural powers, but only if they're strong enough: a user who's too weak instead temporarily loses their powers altogether.
  • The Hyper Zecter from Kamen Rider Kabuto augments the wielder's existing time-based powers, a power that most characters in the setting have. A less capable user just gains a higher degree of Super-Speed, while a more capable one can use it to time travel. The Perfect Zecter, which comes with the Hyper Zecter, is a sword that can augment the powers of other Zecters plugged into it to use them for special attacks.
  • Kamen Rider Den-O's powers all come from the wielder's strength of will, which weak-willed Ryotaro usually compensates for by having one of his four Imagin possess him. The K-Taros upgrade gets around this restriction by letting all of them possess him at once so that there's more willpower to use.
  • Almost every transformation trinket in Kamen Rider Kiva is this sort, enhancing the wearer's natural vampiric powers, with the only exception being the Powered Armor meant for human use. In total Kiva needs to simultaneously wield three amplifier artifacts to bring out the full extent of his power. A human can use the same artifacts to gain vampire powers for a short period before dying from the strain.
  • The Xtreme Memory in Kamen Rider Double comes packaged with the Prism Memory, which acts as an amplifier for most of the previous tools in his arsenal. The Accel movie later introduces the Gaia Memory Enhancement Adapter, which upgrades any Memory plugged into it, and is used by both Accel and the film's Big Bad.
  • The Cosmic Switch in Kamen Rider Fourze does grant a few new powers, but its primary power is to let him perform Ability Mixing between his other thirty-nine superpowers.
  • All of the higher-rank transformation rings in Kamen Rider Wizard work this way, letting the wearer bring out more of their magical potential.
  • The Genesis Core in Kamen Rider Gaim is one for the Sengoku Driver, letting it use the more powerful Energy Lockseeds.
  • Much like Kiva above, all of the transformation devices in Kamen Rider Ghost are technological amplifiers for the user's existing spiritual abilities.
  • The Hazard Trigger in Kamen Rider Build explosively increases the wearer's strength, although it always comes with a terrible price if the wearer isn't already strong enough to handle it. The Big Bad has his own version of the Trigger without any of the drawbacks save one: paralyzing the wearer when it's hit hard enough.
  • The Ridewatches in Kamen Rider Zi-O have their own powers, but their primary purpose is to unlock more of the main character's inherent Time Master powers as he gathers them.
  • Kamen Rider Zero-One can use Vulcan's Assault Wolf Progrise Key as an amplifier for his own Shining Hopper key by yanking the grip part off the former and attaching it to the latter, which makes it produce a stronger suit with extra abilities. Shortly after the first time, he makes his own copy of the amplifier so that he doesn't have to steal it from Vulcan every time he wants to use it.
  • Kamen Rider Saber gets a new sword near the end of the series that comes with some new powers, but mostly focuses on amping up the ones he already had. It can also serve as an amplifier for his allies by giving them extra copies of their signature weapons to dual-wield.
  • Kamen Rider Revice: The Volcano Rex Vistamp serves as an amplifier for the existing Barid Rex Vistamp, plugging into its side. It adds fire manipulation to Barid's existing ice powers, enabling Yin-Yang Bomb attacks, but also makes it much more difficult to use by requiring the user and his demon to be in perfect sync.
  • Kamen Rider Geats: Very unusually, the amplifier is the first power obtained in this series: the Boost Buckle is the most powerful buckle that can be found in the Desire Grand Prix, granting Super-Speed, Playing with Fire, and vastly amplifying the powers of any other buckle the user has. Unfortunately, it's a single-use item, but fortunately one of the protagonists has a maxed-out Luck stat and can find a new copy of Boost with almost no effort.
• Mako Mermaids: An H₂O Adventure: The Moon Rings, which are made from the glowing stones found in the Moon Pool, are used by mermaids to amplify their magical powers. The absorb the light of the full moon and when active, simulate the effects the full moon has on mermaid magic and artifacts. They have a limited amount of power they can store, and if it runs out, the user has to wait until the next full moon to recharge.
• Power Rangers
  • Various versions of the Battlizers (typically only valid when used by the Red Rangers).
  • On top of that are the Sentai SWAT Mode, the Megatector, Super Geki Claw, the InrouMaru, the Miracle Headders, and the GB Custom Visor most recently
• Shadow and Bone: Live animals and some humans — as well as their remains — can amplify Grisha abilities. Some Grisha seen have a bone or other body part hanging off them to indicate that they've amplified their abilities. A subplot sees Alina try to seek Morozova's three beasts, legendary amplifiers that would give her insane power boosts, to destroy the Shadow Fold.
• Warehouse 13 is full of these. Examples include Benjamin Franklin's ring (amplifies the human body's bioelectricity to turn a hand into a flashlight; also works to turn a laser cutter into a lightsaber) and lightning rod (amplifies the energy level of any attached device), a James Braid's chair (amplifies the innermost desires of anyone who sits on it), Spine of the Saracen (amplifies speed, strength, durability, and angel, also grants the ability to deliver lethal electric shocks), Alessandro Volta's lab coat (amplifies "biomagnetic attraction").
• The Wheel of Time (2021): Moiraine gives Rand a sa'angreal, an object that allows him to multiply the strength of his channeling by a factor of about 100.
• Wizards & Warriors In this series both Wizards and Witches make use of crystal pendants called 'Monocles' to boost their innate magical ability. The evil Archwizard Vector manages to make do without his when it is stolen by the evil Prince he serves (though Vector still very much wants it back).

Pro Wrestling

• Paul Bearer's urn seemed to be this for The Undertaker. It allows the Deadman to No-Sell moves that other wrestlers are effected by or recover from them and seems to be the source of (some of) his supernatural abilities. Several individuals have attempted to steal the urn in various storylines to try to make it easier to beat the Undertaker.

Tabletop Games

• Dungeons & Dragons:
  • The Ring of Wizardry provides bonus spell slots, but only to an arcane spellcaster who already has slots of that level. Similarly, the Pearl of Power returns an already-cast spell to the spellcaster's mind once per day, refreshing the spell slot.
  • Spellcasters can use a metamagic rod to apply a Meta Power (e.g.: enlarging an Area of Effect or boosting the damage) to their spellcasting without needing to know the metamagic feat or use a higher Spell Level.
• The Fate system goes out of its way to avoid this by making any item a mechanically separate game element unmodified by other items, and any aspect of an overly complicated item similarly count as a mechanically separate item.
• Games Workshop games:
  • The Mortis Engines from Warhammer, and its sequel Warhammer: Age of Sigmar, are overflowing with the power of death magic and can boost the spell-casting abilities of necromancers who practice their art nearby.
  • Warhammer: Age of Sigmar:
    • The Portal of Skulls carried by Bloodsecrators of the Bloodbound Warhordes are powerful icons of the Blood God that, once opened, creates a rift in reality that allows the rage of Khorne to saturate the surrounding area, driving any nearby followers of the Lord of Skulls into a frenzy that boosts their attacks and grants them reckless courage.
    • Some Kairic Acolytes carry Scrolls of Dark Arts into battle. These mystical scrolls contain many arcane secrets that enhance the sorcerous abilities of the Acolyte and his cohorts.
  • Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: Warpstone, the crystallized stuff of Chaos, boosts spellcasting dice rolls but worsens the risk of a Magic Misfire.
• One of the reasons that Old World of Darkness was famously a min/maxer's paradise is that almost all game lines had a skill that turned a relatively common substance, usually the basic fuel for powers, into this. Vampires without celerity needed blood to live and had to burn it up to use powers. Vampires with celerity burned blood to take extra turns, letting them use all of their powers (including basic ones like "sharp teeth") several times before the enemy even acted.
• In the Wheel of Time Roleplaying Game, as in the original books, angreal and sa'angreal increase the amount of the One Power that a channeler can safely handle at a time. Mechanically, they allow higher-level spells to be cast from lower-level spell slots, with the item's power determining the level gap allowed.

Theme Parks

• In Storm Force Accelatron at Universal's Islands of Adventure, the Accelatron device will greatly amplify the powers of any mutant that it's used on.

Toys

• Several objects or substances in BIONICLE:
  • Antidermis, the substance that makes up the Makuta species, acts as a sort of steroid to Brutaka's race.
  • The Nui Stone drains the elemental energies of nearby beings, giving its owner more power.
  • Elemental masks can enhance the extant elemental powers of their wearers, and the Mask of Elemental Energies can even replenish them. The Mask of Fate unlocks the physical potential of their bearers — it boosts their athletic abilities to their limits but doesn't allow feats that the wearer's species would be physically unable to perform.
  • The Toa Tools are typically depicted like this.
  Toa Kopaka: Interesting. The power is in me. The sword is but the focus.
• Transformers:
  • Transformers: Cybertron: "Cyber Key Power!" A Transformer in this show can gain temporary power boosts, in various forms, by using his or her Cyber Key. Additional or bolstered weapons, turbothrusters, and the like. However, their fuel consumption is typically increased. An interesting form of this trope. Cyber Keys should not be confused with their bigger MacGuffin - Applied Phlebotinum hybrid cousins, the Cyber Planet Keys. (Sadly the toymakers at Hasbro made this very mistake. Were they even allowed anywhere NEAR the episodes?)
  • Mini-Cons did this as well, which was why they were so sought after. Most unlocked new abilities or weapons in robot mode, but in vehicle mode they were often said to increase speed as a bonus.
  • Powermasters did this in G1... except in most Japanese continuities, where the large robot body was non-sentient and controlled entirely by the Powermaster partner.
  • This is one of the many functions the Matrix of Leadership has served in the various iterations of the franchise.
    • The AllSpark sometimes serves a similar function.

Video Games

• Adepts in Azure Striker Gunvolt Series normally are able to use their powers as is, but most Adept bosses you fight in the game use certain artifacts that function as both this and Transformation Trinket.
  • In the first and third games, Adepts who work for the Sumeragi MegaCorp use sword-shaped trinkets called Glaives; in the first game, this results in the Adept bosses being collectively called the Swordsmen. Unlike other artifacts in the series, the Glaives also serve as Power Limiter; in the first game, Sumeragi Adepts deliberately have their septimosome, the source of their superpower, extracted out of them and into the Glaives so that they cannot use much of their powers without transforming, while the Glaives in the Distant Sequel third game can suppress an Adept's power without any surgical procedures whatsoever.
  • In the second game, Eden Adepts use book-shaped artifacts called Grimoires as part of their Fairy Tale Motif. They were made from a combination of reverse-engineering Sumeragi's Glaives without the Power Limiter aspect courtesy of Zonda and physical manifestations of The Muse Septima, which can empower other Adepts.
  • In Luminous Avenger iX, the artifact takes the shape of shirt pins shaped like feathers, thus the Adept bosses are collectively called Winged Warriors in Japanese dub and Falcons in English. Similar to the Grimoires, they were made in part thanks to the power of The Muse. The only Falcon who doesn't use one is their leader Blade who instead receives The Muse's power (and mental control) directly through her helmet.
  • ATEMS knights from the third game use Binding Brands, prototypes of the aforementioned Glaives, to transform. Unlike Sumeragi and Eden, the brands are pillaged by ATEMS instead of made by them.
  • Aside from those "most adepts", we have the likes of Nova from the first game and Zed from the third, who are so immensely powerful they can devastate their enemies without using any Amplifier Artifact. Nova is an especially noteworthy case as he's able to use his powers even when he is sealed with three Glaives as opposed to one like everyone else in Sumeragi.
• Black & White: Wonders are expensive, majestic buildings that grant the town's Patron God a power boost to certain miracles. The specifics vary by the culture that builds them; for example, the Celtic Wonder is a Circle of Standing Stones that amplifies nature miracles, including the wood yield from the Miracle Forest and the damage output from a Storm.
• Clive Barker's Undying features disposable items known as Amplifiers, which can be used to take one of your magic spells up one level. There's also the Gel'Ziabar Stone, which boosts all your spells one level if you use it in concert (though you effectively have no gun if you choose to do this).
• Just about every ring in Dark Souls and its sequels works this way. The straightest examples are ones like the Great Swamp Ring (+8% damage with Pyromancy magic) that explicitly make specific abilities better. The outliers are either a Lethal Joke Item like the Calamity Ring (all damage taken is doubled), or a low level Upgrade Artifact like the Silvercat Ring (take no fall damage unless the fall would be fatal).
• Devil May Cry 5 reveals Dante's signature sword Rebellion to be this in contrast to the Yamato. While alone it's just a BFS that can focus Dante's immense power to cleave through demons and devils alike, it's true potential is to unite and amplify Dante's power, taking him from being able to challenge Eldritch Abominations with Reality Warper abilities and The Power of Creation to full Physical God status himself, along with the sword evolving and fusing with Dante’s power to form Devil Sword Dante and unlocking his true demonic form, the Sin Devil Trigger.
• Dragonfable: You have multiple Elemental Orbs, Weapons of Doom, the Dragon Amulet, etc.
• In Dominions, many magical artifacts are of this nature, doing such things as assisting casting or lessening magic resistance.
• Talismans in Elden Ring work more or less the same way as Rings in Dark Souls, listed above. Most fall into this category, boosting stats or some aspect of an existing power while equipped, with outliers usually being a Lethal Joke Item or a minor Upgrade Artifact that lets the Tarnished ignore some inconvenience.
• In Gotcha Force, once G Red recovers his missing code that the Death Force stole from him, he goes from being the Jack of All Stats to being one step below Game-Breaker.
• The Tome of Power in Heretic and Hexen II is a dictionary-sized black book with a skull on the cover. It has the magical property of enhancing the user's weapons for a limited time, changing their behavior in varying degrees^examplesthe Phoenix Rod and Meteor Shaft, rocket launcher-like weapons, respectively become a flamethrower and start shooting whirlwinds full of smoldering rock that trap enemies and can go through walls; the Crossbows of both games merely fire more bolts per shot at a faster rate; most melee weapons simply deal increased damage but in almost all cases dramatically increases the damage per attack. The downside is that it burns out after one single use, and copies aren't very common, so especially early on, it could be Too Awesome to Use.
• The Ray Sphere from inFAMOUS, the device that started it all kills everyone in a six-block radius to accelerate the development of the user's powers.
• Near the end of Jade Empire, it is revealed that the amulet you've been reassembling and allows you to use Essence Gems is simply an amplifier for the powers inherent within you as a Spirit Monk, which is why at that point you no longer need it. However, in the hands of others, it is still a powerful mystical artifact.
• In The Legend of Dark Witch, Tres crystals can amplify Zizou's abilities.
• Wayne in Lost Planet had an attachment for his device to help him unleash the full potential of the mechs in the game. For no reason other than the plot he didn't put it on when he first received it and didn't use it until the final boss. Lucky too as it wiped his memory.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • Ganon's Triforce of Power usually acts like this, enhancing his already impressive physical strength and immense magic power to quite literally god-like levels. Zelda's Triforce of Wisdom is also hinted to be the source of her own powerful magics and is probably the only reason she can affect Ganon after he's been weakened. Curiously the Triforce of Courage never seems to do the same for Link, though it does canonically make him unstoppable.
  • The secret stones in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom amplify the magic power that their wielders already have, essentially making them a slightly more common substitute for the Triforce. The backstory even involved Ganondorf scheming to nab a stone for himself to Take Over the World.
• Most of the items in League of Legends (and, one might imagine, other Multiplayer Online Battle Arena games with similar fantasy trappings) work like this. Despite looking like ordinary weapons and equipment, they have their effects regardless of whether they would be physically possible to wield simultaneously. For example, among the Infinity Edge, The Bloodthirster, and the Phantom Dancer items, four swords are depicted; yet completely humanoid, two-armed champions are able to take advantage of them all simultaneously while attacking with guns or bows.
  • It's theorized but unconfirmed that it's the Summoners instead who hold and utilize the power of the game's items. This would hold true with the trope, as the Summoner would be using these artifacts to boost the power of their summoned Champions in-game.
• Magic Rampage: The Runes used to upgrade magic-based weapons.
• Several throughout the Mortal Kombat franchise, most notably the Dragon Medallion and suit of ancestral armor the younger Sub-Zero picks up in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance and Mortal Kombat: Deception.
• The Yatgy Stone in Nocturne (1999) is an artifact that massively increases a vampire's power, while rendering him immune to normal vampiric weaknesses. The heroes set off on a mission to reclaim it from a vampire lord who's recently stolen it. They succeed, only to lose the stone to its original vampiric owner, who (unlike the vampire who took it from him) thankfully doesn't have any apocalyptic plans for it.
• Evie from Paladins uses a crystal that she trapped a powerful frost elemental in to amplify her ice magic. Overnight, she went from apprentice to Winter Witch.
• The Evokers from Persona 3 only work if someone has the "potential" to summon a Persona to begin with, even if that potential is artificially induced. The Evoker just makes things much easier. Later games in the series completely eschew the evokers, but also show that the process for controlling a Persona are much more dangerous as a result^note In Persona 4, Personas can manifest naturally as is the case for the protagonist, but most people are at danger of being overwhelmed by the part of themselves that they deny, and in Persona 5, gaining control of a Persona is anything but gentle: it requires being pushed to the absolute limit of what you're willing to accept, and then manifests as a mask that you have to tear off your face, painfully and bloodily, implying that the Evokers are a means of forcing Persona manifestation on those with the potential (each subsequent game also inevitably features fewer Persona-users than Persona 3).
  • Evokers also serve another purpose: they can force a Persona to manifest in the real world, in broad daylight, at any time. The Investigation Team didn't even know that was a possibility when they meet the members of SEES when Fuuka provides assistance from outside the TV world in the finale of Persona 4: Arena.
• Many Pokémon have hold items that only work for them, most notably the Light Ball, designed to give Pikachu a massive boost in Special Attack. They may grant simple stat boosts or in the case of Mega Stones, and Z-Crystals, grant a Mega Evolution or a powerful one-time attack.
• The Elder Artifacts in RuneScape are partial versions of this. In addition to acting as sources of power from which the gods draw their godhood, each artifact seems to have a specific function. There are 12 in all.
• Magic Amplifiers in Ryzom are gloves that are used primarily by Magic users to increase the power (and decrease the casting time) of their spells, whether they be offensive Elemental Magic spells or defensive Healing spells.
• Skill Stones in Singular Stone are artifacts that determines a Guardian's max level. At Level 1 Skill Stone could only reach up to Level 8, while Level 2 Skill Stone allow them to reach level 18. With a Level 3 Skill Stone, a Guardian could levels up all the way to level 39, the highest possible level in the game.
• Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • Chaos Emeralds. It's been commented by the writers of SEGA that they don't simply grant new powers, but amplify what one already had, as well as modify a few powers occasionally.
  • The Chaos Emeralds had the Amplifier Artifact treatment pulled on themselves by the master Emerald to form the Super Emeralds.
• Artifacts in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series. Spawned from anomalies scattered around the Zone, they have varying effects. Some will increase your stamina regeneration rate, others will give you a Healing Factor or Damage Reduction properties, but they all have at least one negative side effect, usually increasing your weakness to some sort of damage or emitting radiation into your body. Wearing the right ones can turn you into a Lightning Bruiser — which you'll need in the Zone.
• According to the backstory, the Psi Emitters in StarCraft amplify the "signature" of a telepath, allowing them to be heard over huge distances, at least by the Zerg. Also, Protoss Khaydarin crystals amplify the user's psionic abilities in various ways, such as the Zealots' bracers, which allow them to form Psi Blades.
• Happens in Star Trek Judgment Rites during the episode featuring Trelane, a Recurring Character from The Original Series whose powers are derived from such artifacts. In the game, Kirk and his crew must seek and destroy several of Trelane's Amplified Artifacts in order to weaken a force field protecting his castle.
• From System Shock 2 we have various implants that increase various stats and skills. The PSI-Amplifier from the same game is technically this.
• In Tales of Xillia 2, the pocketwatches that Chromatus users are born with serve as their Transformation Trinket that activates their powers. However, it's possible to boost their power further by using someone else's. The protagonist Ludger's pocketwatch turns out to have been used by his older brother Julius, with the implication in supplementary material that Julius only adopted him for that reason. An alternate version of Ludger achieves the most powerful level of Chromatus by killing Julius and their father, and taking their watches for himself.
• The Amplifier in Unreal is a modal battery that boosts your energy weapons' power. A powered-up and fully upgraded Dispersion Pistol can one-shot a Skaarj Lord.
• The Tenno's Warframes in Warframe are not the source of the Tenno's power, rather a suit that amplifies (and possibly controls) the powers the Tenno received when they were tortured in the Void by the Orokin.
• In The World Ends with You Kitanji gives his Reapers O Pins, which are supposed to make them stronger This is a subversion. All it does is let them be mind controlled.
• ZanZarah: The Hidden Portal: Elemental cards increase the powers of your active fairy of the respective element. Stone fairies are given the ability to move boulders, fire fairies prevent you from getting roasted alive while strolling alongside flowing lava, etc.

Web Animation

• RWBY: Every living thing on Remnant possesses Aura, a life-force that is powered by the soul. Dust is the world's natural energy resource, mined from the ground in crystalline form and used in a variety of ways to take advantage of Dust's natural Elemental Powers. Huntsmen are elite warriors who have learned how to control and manipulate their Aura to achieve certain effects. They fight with Dust because Aura can activate (and sometimes amplify) Dust, allowing Huntsmen to achieve far more powerful effects than either Dust or Aura alone are capable of.

Web Comics

• Archipelago: Amplifying Credenza's natural magical power is only one of the many uses of the Soul Key, a pendant with a green (Big Good color) stone she receives along with the quest and wears until the final battle when the villain crushes it, but by that point Credenza doesn't really need the Key anymore.
• This is the effect that being touched by the Sovereign of Sorrow in Captain SNES: The Game Masta gives. A given's sprite's abilities will be greatly enhanced, at the cost of soul-crushing sorrow
• Cucumber Quest has the Hocus Crocus, a flower rumored to multiply a person's magical capabilities by the number of years it took to bloom. This is generally considered a joke because the Hocus Crocus blooms once a year... until one specimen appears that took two. It works, incidentally.
• The Magitek Implants in Elf Blood generally do not add new abilities to their host, but rather improve upon their existing natural talents. Examples include a Sympathetic Magic booster to improve the effects of spells and enhanced strength.
• Eerie Cuties has an artifact that stimulates succubus powers. Three guesses at how that looks?
• Tedd's gauntlet in El Goonish Shive, acts like a capacitor, it drains and stores his limited magic energy over a long period of time then, when he needs a power boost, it gives it back all at once.
• Gunnerkrigg Court:
  • The Blinker Stones can amplify and focus their users' Psychic Powers. And some particularly talented psychics can learn to replicate these effects without the stones.
  • Fairies as magical creatures approve using a blinker as an instant campfire, but consider the use for mere look around out-of-body to be for mentally weak.
• The Power Booster Rod of It's Walky! is Exactly What It Says on the Tin. (Okay, no, it's not- it contains a preset amount of energy that can be tapped and used by its wielder. But the amount that can be tapped at one time is proportional to the starting power level of the wielder, so a super-powered character can cause more havoc than a normal one.) ^note It's also less of a rod and more of a tree branch. So yeah, not really Exactly What it Says on the Tin
• The aptly-named amplifier in Juathuur, and Soveshei's serum.
• Magicians in Never Satisfied can use gemstones that match their magic color as a focus for magical power.
  • Philomena, being incredibly inexperienced, needs several pieces of emerald jewelry to use the same amount of magic that most other characters attain with a single piece of jewelry.
  • During the fourth test, the competitors are required to remove their magic focuses so they don't accidentally overload the quartz shooters and hurt their fellow competitors. January deliberately overloads her shooter with the intent to injure Sylas, Philomena reveals that she can't even use the shooter under her own power, and Lucy confesses that their glass jewelry is just for show. Later, Philomena uses the emerald pasted to Tully's forehead to shoot Peony and herself, ending the test.
  • Su-Yeong frets when Isra gives her a pair of ruby earrings until Isra explains that, as a husk, the earrings serve to draw power away from her eyes, rather than to intensify it.
• The Order of the Stick, being based on D&D, has most common magic items being of this kind. Notably, Roy's Belt of Giant Strength, Elan's Belt of Charisma, or V's Ring of Wizardry. This is Lampshaded by Haley with a Potion of Glibness: she takes it from Elan to use herself because while it would make him a good liar, she's already a good liar so it will make her an utterly amazing liar.
• Unicorn Jelly: A teenage girl is stabbed to death by a crystalline lifeform and resurrected by the title character. The crystals that penetrate her brain act as multi-cellular fiber-optics, making her a super-genius but emotionally deadened. She ends up saving Transmyltania's human civilization.
• Widdershins: The three Anchors are sites or artifacts of unknown origin that greatly amplify magic nearby, such as in the titular English town. Wizards of otherwise negligible power can manage much more powerful magic in Widdershins, and within the Anchor itself, magic can occur spontaneously without the usual incantations.

Web Original

• The cybaspheres from the web fiction serial Dimension Heroes both give the heroes new powers, as well as amplifying their old ones.
• In The Gamer's Alliance, the swords Dawn and Dusk have magical powers which are fully unleashed only when they are used by their chosen wielders.
• SCP Foundation:
  • SCP-914 acts this way on its "Fine" and "Very Fine" settings. Just pray that it doesn't manage to overshoot...
  • SCP-248 are stickers from a corporation that produces SCPs. These stickers have "110%" printed on them, and attaching them to anything will boost performance to, you guessed it, a 110% percent. This also includes senescence (i.e. wear and tear).
• The self-ware black scythe from Trinton Chronicles can act as this to some people.
• The Questport Chronicles has Gaudior's Horn, which powers spells up so much that a powerful sorcerer uses it to destroy Questport.

Western Animation

• The Series Five brain implants in Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers didn't give the title heroes their particular abilities; they just amped up what the Rangers already had. This was aptly demonstrated in the Brought Down to Normal episode "The Power Within".
• Ben 10: Ultimate Alien revolved around the Ultimatrix, an upgraded copy of Ben's normal Omnitrix that gave each of his aliens a Super Mode by altering their DNA to simulate Goal-Oriented Evolution. In the Grand Finale it's confiscated and destroyed by Azmuth and replaced with an updated Omnitrix as it had several glitches, lacked key functions like DNA repair, and contrasted with his philosophy of using technology for peace.
• Starmetal in Conan the Adventurer amplifies magic-users power.
• An episode of the Dungeons & Dragons (1983) cartoon has an Amplifier Artifact location, The Dragon's Graveyard, where the heroes' weapons were forged. When they were used there, they had greater effect, allowing the heroes to overpower the Big Bad they were normally forced to run from.
• The Archmage in Gargoyles uses three magic items to accomplish both amplify his powers and gain new ones. The Phoenix Gate to teleport and time travel, the Grimorum to give him many more spells, and the Eye of Odin to boost his natural magic power and let him handle the first two without having a Super-Power Meltdown. Guess which one was the key to defeating him?
• He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983):
  • In "Evil-Lyn's Plot", it is revealed that He-Man's chest harness is made of coridite, a substance that amplifies strength. Skeletor makes an amulet out of coridite that makes him strong enough to grapple with He-Man, at least until He-Man manages to destroy it.
  • In "The Games", Skeletor unveils a device called the Evilgizer, which is said to increase the evil of its target. He uses it on his dimwitted henchman Spikor, who becomes chosen as Evil's Champion in a contest by the Bendari. Oddly, it didn't affect his personality or power level at all.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • The Elements of Harmony. As it turns out, there are reasons both simple and complex that it was Twilight Sparkle and no other pony who ended up on the quest for them.
  • We find out later that The Power of Friendship is quite strong without the Elements of Harmony themselves, as it alone was able to incinerate three Windigos who had the power to freeze the world. It seems the Elements just amplify this power to the point it can One-Hit KO gods.
  • The Crystal Heart from the season 3 premiere provides a similar function. As long as the Crystal Empire's inhabitants keep their spirits up, their love and cheer power the Heart and allow it to protect the Empire.
  • "Magic Duel" brings us an evil version in the Alicorn Amulet, a powerful artifact that gives the wearer nigh-godlike magical power while slowly corrupting them with every spell they cast.
  • In the two-parter "The Cutie Re-Mark", we see that the Cutie Map inside Twilight's Friendship Castle can be used as such since it grants access to every part of Equestria. In order to make her Time Travel spell work in the manner she wants to, Starlight Glimmer augments Star Swirl's old single-use spell with the power of the Map, which in turn draws power from the Tree of Harmony itself. The resulting power boost lets her travel back to any time and place she chooses, as often as she wants.
  • The Bewitching Bell from the final season is a unique combination of this and a Power Nullifier as it is able to steal the magic of living creatures, contain it, and give it to another. The effects are shown when Tirek, Chrysalis, and Cozy Glow use it to power themselves up, allowing them to Curb Stomp some of the most powerful characters in the series.
• The Owl House: Witches can amplify their magic by wearing/using a power glyph, which appears to be, or is inked on a piece of paper. While the specific effects of the glyph aren't mentioned, one witch shown to be using one was able to conjure an abomination several times larger than one she was previously able to create without one. Removal of the power glyph will reduce a witch's power back to normal.
• Cyborg of Teen Titans (2003) once had a super-processing chip named the Max-7 installed to increase his speed, strength, and intelligence. Unfortunately, he overloaded it and had to have it removed. The biggest problem with the chip was that, as he kept overclocking it to increasing his abilities and intelligence... he did so at the expense of his humane characteristics, essentially turning him into an emotionless robot. Overloading it into uselessness restored him to normal.
• ThunderCats (1985): In "The Heritage", the Golden Sphere of Seti multiplies its holder's power by four, but it also amplifies its holder's negative emotions like greed.
• ThunderCats (2011):
  • The Eye of Thundera serves as an amplifier as well as a Power Crystal for the Sword of Omens. The Sword, though crafted from enchanted metal, is little more than a heavily ornamented dagger either without the Eye or in resting state. When a By the Power of Grayskull! is uttered, the Eye activates, and the sword extends to longsword length. Other crystals also exist, that can transform simple gauntlets into full suits of Adaptive Armor.
  • Averted with the Sword of Plundarr, the evil bigger brother of the Sword of Omens, forged from the same metal and infused with evil power in its own right. It is strongly implied that the Sword of Plundarr without a power crystal is just as powerful as the Sword of Omens with the Eye of Thundera. A big plot point is keeping Mumm-Ra from getting the Eye of Thundera which, if mated with the Sword of Plundarr, would make it the most powerful weapon in the universe.
• The Eliacube in Wakfu, a piece of Precursor tech which exponentially increases the power of magical abilities at the cost of Life Energy (not necessarily the user's).
• Mystic Hearts in WITCH, most notably the Heart of Kandrakar which the Guardians use to power up (we see that the previous generation of Guardians, who no longer have the Heart, can still use their powers but only at a greatly reduced level). Every dimension has a Heart that generates all of its magical energy, so having sole control of one quite desirable, and quite dangerous even for good guys. (Yes, that includes this dimension, but the Heart of Earth is Lillian. Thankfully, Nerissa's attempt on that one is thwarted.) In the second season, Big Bad Nerissa steals and combines the Hearts of Meridian and Zambala in order to create a new Amplifier Artifact called the Seal of Nerissa, turning her and former Big Bad Phobos when he in turn steals it from her into one of the most powerful characters in the series.

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