Stuff dropped from enemies and items in games, whether money, health, Power Upsnote , or other things, can be invaluable. But getting to them isn't always easy, as they often appear out of reach (especially if dropped by an enemy hit with a ranged weapon), forcing you to go out of your way to get them, or right into a group of enemies to get them. These problems are compounded if the dropped items tend to scatter. Enter this trope, which is the ability to draw power ups to the player character from far away. Even if the range is limited, it just means you have to get a little closer to grab them instead of being practically right next to them.
There are three types of this trope:
- "Auto Innate": Powerups are naturally attracted to player and won't require any item or ability.
- "Auto Gained": The player has to acquire an ability or a powerup which does this, and might need to be equipped, but actual use requires no effort from player.
- "Manual": These are usually telekinesis-type and require the player to manually activate, and often target, the desired item to collect it.
This is so-called because this ability is often called "X Magnet" in some games.
A standard gameplay mechanic in Bullet Hell games is to have this ability for dropped rewards if the player stops firing.
A Sub-Trope of Item-Drop Mechanic.
Examples:
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Auto Innate
- Bounty of One: All characters have a collection radius that will attract coins, hearts, and loot chests to them. It starts out very small, but upgrading your Area Size will increase this radius. The Magnetized Horseshoe item multiplies your collection radius by 2x, and the Gluttony item increases your collection radius the more HP you have.
- Bubble Tanks: Bubbles have magnetic properties towards the main tank and will home on player when close by. When all enemies are cleared in one area, every bubble in the area will be attracted to the player right away.
- CAVE: Most Shoot'em ups have powerups that are magnetic.
- Crackdown: Any mini orbs gained, whether from defeating activities, winning races, or finding the large orbs, are attracted to the PC.
- Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time: Wumpa Fruit and other collectibles are automatically collected a second after you free them from a crate, so the player doesn't have to manually run through them.
- DmC: Devil May Cry: Orbs dropped by enemies automatically fly towards the playable character, unlike the previous games where they drop to the floor by default if they're out-of-range. This feature is present by default, unlike in Devil May Cry 4 where the "Get More Orbs" skill must be purchased first to achieve a similar result.
- Enter the Gungeon has this as one of the Anti-Frustration Features which allows you to automatically collect casings (read: currency) spawned from killing enemies when a room is cleared.
- Go Beryllium!: Quarks are attracted towards the beryllium atom when it's in a short distance.
- God of War: Souls are automatically attracted to Kratos.
- Joumee The Hedgehog: If Joumee grabs a magnet, she'll be able to temporarily attract coins to herself.
- Minecraft: Experience orbs are naturally attracted on the player.
- Spyro the Dragon: Spyro's dragonfly companion Sparx picks up nearby gems for him. Sparx disappears after Spyro takes damage three times, at which point Spyro must pick up the gems himself. In some games, an upgrade increases Sparx's reach, allowing him to pick up gems from farther away than before.
- SSX 3: The point adders/multipliers will attract to your boarder when you get close to them. This was actually a fan suggestion: in the previous two games they were much larger, but the smaller size in 3 made them harder to collect. When users of fansite Merqury City.com were invited to demo the game, they suggested this feature!
- Justified in Stormland, a game where you're a robot. You have zero-energy emitters built in your palms, who helps you cling on surfaces like magnets.
- Team Fortress 2: In the Mann vs. Machine mode, the Scout attracts money towards him in a set radius.
- Terraria: Players attract items towards them from a short distance away. Certain potions or accessories can increase the pickup radius for health and mana pickups and money.
- Touhou Project:
- The later games have your character drawing in powerups that get close to her. Also, in all games starting from Touhou Koumakyou ~ the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, moving into the upper part of screen past a certain point will automatically draw all items on the screen to you (although there are certain conditions for this in earlier games, such as being at full power or focusing). Just be careful not to get sucker-punched by the sudden appearance of a stage midboss...
- Touhou Chireiden ~ Subterranean Animism: This is justified when Reimu's Mission Control is Suika Ibuki, an Oni with the special ability to control density, which extends to gathering every power up item on the screen.
- Warframe: Archwings have a built-in item vacuum to compensate for the larger distances and maps involved. Sadly, this does not extend to Titania's Razorwing.
Auto Gained
- Anti-Idle: The Game: The Magnet NPC in the Beginner Training Zone will draw all loot drops to the player, but only while they're actively playing. Alternately, the craftable Loot Magnet item will draw all loot drops to the player unconditionally for a while.
- Bad Piggies: The magnet power-up attracts starboxes and cakes to your vehicle.
- Bastion: One of the first draughts that The Kid has access to grants this ability.
- The Binding of Isaac: A Magneto item attracts pickups even over gaps and over rocks. There is also a broken magnet trinket that does the same only for coins unless golden.
- Bounty of One: The Proud Magnet item makes you attract all coins lying on the ground whenever you defeat a Deputy, no matter the distance.
- Candies 'n Curses: The Magnet Charm pulls in hearts, souls, and ectoplasm.
- Cyber Chaser: The Coin Magnet upgrade affects the rate at which coins, gems, and fuel cans are naturally attracted.
- Devil May Cry 4 and Devil May Cry 5 have a character-specific "Get More Orbs" skill which greatly expands your acquisition range, allowing you to collect orbs faster than usual.
- Eagle Island features the Satchel perk, which allows Koji to collect items for Quill.
- Frantic: The Magnet card/accessory attracts coins to the ship automatically from far away.
- Hollow Knight: When equipped, the Seeking Swarm badge produces a swarm of tiny insects that follow the Little Ghost around and automatically pick up Geo dropped by slain enemies and fly it back to him. In addition to acting as a timesaver, this is very useful for retrieving Geo that falls into spike pits, where it can't otherwise be retrieved.
- Hyperballoid: The Bonus Magnet attracts positive bonuses to your paddle.
- The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons: Link gets a literal example in the form of Magnetic Gloves. It only attracts objects needed to progress (and some enemies), but he can still use the Boomerang as stated below.
- LEGO Adaptation Game: All games since LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga (2007) include the "Stud Magnet" ability. Certain games in the series also have hidden power-up orbs in levels that temporarily give the same effect.
- Maximo: Ghosts to Glory: The Midas Shield attracts treasure from a distance, and can even be combined with throwing the shield.
- Mega Man X7: The helmet upgrade grants X the ability to attract power-ups from a short distance.
- Mini Robot Wars: The Mini-Magnet will attract resources to it in a radius, every few seconds.
- Mr. Bean: Around the World: Top Hat attracts Gold Beans like a magnet.
- Ōkami has the Golden Lucky Cat, purchasable in certain limited areas with Demon Fangs instead of Yen. Equipping it will allow Amaterasu to attract basic collectible items (including money) so she doesn't have to run around to gather them manually.
- Ori and the Blind Forest has two upgrades that make Ori attract experience orbs. First level makes experience orbs fly towards Ori at short distance and the second one collects every experience orb onscreen automatically.
- Painkiller: One of the tarot cards makes souls to be magnetic powerups which fly towards the player when having short enough distance.
- Palworld: Flopie is a Fairy Companion Pal whose Partner Skill allows them to collect items on the ground and bring them to the player, even if they're not the player's active Pal.
- Plants vs. Zombies: The Gold Magnet will attract all coins in a large radius around it, every few seconds.
- Ratchet & Clank: Ratchet can usually earn or find range upgrades for his auto-innate ability to draw in bolts.
- Shantae: Risky's Revenge: You can buy a powerup from the store that auto-attracts money to you.
- Shovel Knight: Drinking an ichor of fortune makes Shovel Knight attract all treasure to himself for 60 seconds, even through walls.
- Sonic the Hedgehog: In several games since the third, the electric/magnet shield powerup attracts rings.
- Turbo Overkill: A Zhen Magnet augment allows Johnny to vacuum up the currency of the game that's dropped by fallen enemies.
- An Untitled Story: This appears as an optional ability, attracting crystals towards the player.
- Vampire Survivors: The Vacuum pickup draws in experience gems to you when collected. It's very fortunate to have when you've been displaced all over the map kiting hordes and can't cut through the mob to get the gems you spilled several minutes ago. There's also the Attractorb item and Magnet upgrades, which simply widen the radius in which items are actually picked up.
- Warframe has the Vacuum Mod for Sentinels, which automatically picks up any collectibles nearby. For Tenno that have pets, there is now the Fetch Mod, which allows your Kubrow or Kavat to obtain any nearby collectibles.
- Yoshi's Island DS: When Baby Wario is hitching a ride, he carries a magnet. One of its functions is to draw all coins (including red coins) to you. Since some coins are completely blocked by walls, this is the only way to get some of them. That's right, a magnet can pull coins through solid walls.
Manual
- The Binding of Isaac: Boomerang item allows Isaac to grab pickups from a distance.
- Dungeon Siege:
- Dungeon Siege III also allows you to do this with gold, equipment, and (in the Treasures of the Sun DLC) Essences. Earlier games in the main series allowed you to do something similar, but by sending your party to physically pick up what they could see rather than pulling the items toward you.
- Space Siege allows you to draw Parts (the games equivalent to currency) to yourself if they are within range.
- Fable: Experience orbs automatically come at you as long as you hold the Right Trigger.
- Half-Life 2: The Gravity Gun can pull in objects and repel them, has this as one of its many uses.
- Hi-Fi RUSH: Chai has an innate ability to attract items near him, but his Rhythm Dodge allows him to pull in items from a much wider radius when used.
- Kirby:
- The Whip Copy Ability, introduced in Kirby's Return to Dream Land, has the unique ability to pick up items with all of its attacks, even through walls.
- Speaking of Return to Dream Land, its Updated Re-release introduced the Sand ability. It has a move called Sand Grab which, like Whip, can grab items through walls.
- In Kirby and the Forgotten Land, the Cutter ability can be used to collect various pickups.
- The Legend of Zelda: In most games, Link can use his Hookshot or Boomerang to pick up items that he can't reach.
- Mega Man:
- Mega Man 9: The Hornet Chaser is a Bee-Bee Gun that can retrieve powerups even through walls.
- Mega Man IV makes the Ring Boomerang into this. Its ROM Hack Rockman 4 Minus ∞ also adapts this into HCR Boomerang.
- Mega Man V: A power-up to the Mega Arm lets it retrieve items in the same fashion.
- Mega Man X: The Boomerang Cutter could be used to retrieve items even through walls — including that one Heart Tank in Boomer Kuwanger's own stage.
- Mega Man Legends: The Vacuum Arm lets you collect Zenny and energy pickups from a distance.
- Metroid Prime Trilogy: Charging any of Samus's beam weapons draws in health and ammo refills while the charge is held.
- Onimusha games have you hold a button to attract souls.
- Prison City: Primary attack can collect items from a distance when firing at them.
- Runescape: The telekinetic grab spell helps to grab items from the distance if it can't be reached for one reason or another.
- Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice: You need to hold down a button to vacuum up all money and loot dropped by dead enemies. It takes some time to get used to if you're coming from the Dark Souls series.
- StreetPass Mii Plaza: Rangers in light green in Mii Force have the Ensnaring Plasma attack, en electric whip that homes in on any nearby enemies and goodies. Level 3 Ensnaring Plasma can even collect things through walls, which is necessary for 100% Completion.
- Super Mario Bros.: In general, later games have given Mario ability to pick up coins and powerups by throwing shells at them or even by shooting at them.
- Paper Mario: Mario can launch Kooper in Paper Mario 64 or Koops in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door to retrieve items just out of reach. Koops has the bonus of charging, allowing Mario to move to a more desirable location before launching.
- Super Mario Galaxy:
- In both games, the player can point the Wiimote to Star bits so they fly off to Mario. So can the second player, if you managed to drag one in.
- Super Mario Galaxy 2: In multiplayer mode, the second player can click on distant enemies to send their in-game Luma avatar zipping off to retrieve them.
- Tower of Greed: Once turned on, the Magnet attracts gems visible on the screen (and some that are off-screen) to you.
- Warframe: Mag's passive allows her to draw in nearby drops when bullet-jumping; she can also equip the Greedy Pull mod to let her first power, Pull, do the same thing. In Archwing missions, Tenno using the Itzal can pull in both items and enemies with its third power, Cosmic Crush.
