Utility Weapon

This is a video game gameplay trope where a weapon in the game can be used for something other than fighting enemies; typically by bypassing obstacles or being used to solve puzzles. This could be as simple as explosives (dynamite's a popular one) which can destroy specific barriers other weapons can't touch, however on the other end of the spectrum, Metroidvania style games often give the player equipment which allows them to bypass a given obstacle but also comes in handy against the various enemies the game throws at them (for example, a jump attack which allows them to both get over large gaps and to attack flying mooks). Another popular variant is to have the player's melee weapon be an Improvised Weapon which can also be used as originally intended (e.g. repairing things, cutting through barriers, digging, etc).

The reason for this trope is often rooted in the constraints of a Game Engine. If the engine was originally designed for a purely combat-based game and the developer wanted to make it more puzzle based (as was the case in the '90s, when the First-Person Shooter genre began experimenting with more story-based games as well as RPG Elements) then they have to modify it. Since the original engine probably already allows the player to carry and use weapons, it makes sense (from both a technical and gameplay point of view) to create weapons that can be used in puzzle-solving. Another good reason is that doesn't force the player to fumble around switching from "puzzle-solving equipment" to "weapons" (thus averting a Scrappy Mechanic). The Action/Adventure (especially the aforementioned Metroidvania games) genre also favours this trope (as well as Ability Required to Proceed), since it allows the player to both progress through the game and be more capable of fighting enemies at the same time.

Note that a weapon being used to smash through barriers (or innocent furnishings) or do anything else that any weapon could achieve doesn't count; the utility effect must be unique to that weapon (or a couple of specific weapons). Nor do weapons that happen to be the weakness of particular enemies; those fall under Achilles' Heel.

Supertrope to Muzzle Flashlight, where the utility is specifically creating light through muzzle flashes. Compare Sword of Plot Advancement, for when a weapon has a non-combat use in the plot rather than in gameplay. Unintended examples of this trope, such as using the recoil on a weapon to jump higher, may lead to Sequence Breaking. Within the story of the game itself, the weapon might be an Improvised Weapon (if it's a tool that could normally be used to bypass the puzzles which the game allows the player to use as a weapon) or an example of Mundane Utility (if it's something made as a weapon which just happens to be useful for solving the game's puzzles). Also related to the Inverse Law of Utility and Lethality (where abilities and weapons are more useful when they're less effective at dealing out damage). This may also function as one of the Standard FPS Guns. Often leads to a form of Equipment-Based Progression.

Sub-Trope of Video Game Tools, items with some sort of functionality.

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Examples:

Action Adventure

• Metroid
  • The games run on this trope. The basic "Power Beam" doesn't do much outside of combat (although in Metroid game, it was upgraded from the short beam to the long beam, which made it possible to clear a few early obstacles), however all the later weapons in every game can be used to remove certain obstacles and open colour coded doors.
  • Super Metroid: Every weapon you get (beyond the basic power beam, which can still open basic blue doors) will help you bypass a specific obstacle.
  • Metroid Prime Trilogy: Besides the Power Beam, the weapons come as a Fire, Ice, Lightning trio. The Ice Beam can freeze enemies or liquids, the Wave Beam can energize certain devices, and the Plasma Beam can melt ice and weld circuits.
• Since every dungeon in The Legend of Zelda series contains one new piece of equipment (which will be needed to kill the boss and progress further) you can bet your last rupee that it'll have a use in both puzzle-solving and combat (unless you end up against a Puzzle Boss, of course). The "Weapon" part was later downplayed in Zelda games from Wind Waker to Skyward Sword, where most dungeon items were used mainly to solve puzzles, but Breath of the Wild brings it back in full force.
• The LEGO Adaptation Game series is full of these. For just one example, practically every weapon in LEGO Indiana Jones is useful for something else (the wrench for repairs, the shovel for hidden items, the whip for crossing chasms or pulling objects towards you, etc.).
• In Ōkami, Amaterasu's brush is used both as a weapon as well as pretty much everything else.
• The brush in Epic Mickey serves as both a weapon and a tool (this time because of the ink-based environment).
• Cave Story's machine gun can be used to jump with the recoil.
• Castle Wolfenstein.
  • Your pistol's bullets could not only kill enemy soldiers but shoot open locked doors (very useful if you don't have any keys) and speed up the unlocking of chests (better hope the chest isn't full of explosives like bullets or grenades).
  • Grenades can be used to destroy dangerous enemies such as SS troops. They can also be used to blow open locked doors and destroy interior walls and chests to make it easier to get around.
• In the World of Mana series, many weapons can interact with the environment: Swords cut bushes, Axes smash rocks, Whips can be used to swing across gaps, and so on.
• In Beyond Good & Evil, Jade's gyrodisk launcher can be used both to attack enemies and to activate switches from a distance.
• In Banjo-Tooie, Clockwork Kazooie eggs function primarily as remote-controlled Action Bombs, but they also can help collect items in hard-to-reach places.
• In Tomb Raider (2013), the only one of Lara's weapons that doesn't have a practical, non-combat purpose is the pistol. Her climbing axe is a prying aid, the shotgun is used to destroy wooden barriers, the rifle's grenade launcher attachment blows up metal barriers, and the bow's rope and fire arrows are useful tools for traversal and accessing collectibles and salvage.
• In the Batman: Arkham Series, most weapons have three functions: one in melee combat, one in the stealth sections, and one for exploration (although the utility and stealth functions frequently overlap). The main exception is the cryptographic sequencer, which is mainly used as a "have you beat the goons yet?" gate.
• Axiom Verge, being a Metroidvania, has several of these:
  • The Laser Drill can be used against enemies, but it's more necessary for cutting through soft blocks.
  • The game's signature weapon, Address Disruptor, tends to do stranger things to enemies than damaging them, sometimes converting them into things that heal you instead of hurt you. It, or one of its upgraded versions, can also clear away the corrupted blocks that bar the way in various places.
• In Rosco Mc Queen, you play as a firefighter, whose hose can be used to either stun robots or put out fires, and axe can be used to destroy them or break down doors. In addition, powerups like the titanium axe can be used for both as well (do more damage to enemies or destroy heavier doors).
• The Haunted Ruins: At one point, a bomb is needed to break a wall to continue proceeding down the dungeon. It's not a special bomb, as they can be bought for a few coins at the shop outside the dungeon. But, the only explained use of bombs is as a weapon.
• Demon Hunter: The Return of the Wings: In the 5th chapter Gun gets a Rock-cutting Sword recipe. As a weapon it's pathetic, but it's required to remove certain walls.

Action Game

• Evolva: The first five weapons are also used to cross several obstacles. The Claws can be used to break rock walls, the Flames to burn plant walls, and the Spore to break giant boulders blocking paths. The Spikes can be used to drop explosive spores which are hanging on walls, and the Stealth technique to cross plant doors that close when approached.

First Person Shooter

• PAYDAY 3: Throwing knives can be used to distract guards in stealth, in addition to acting as a throwable weapon.
• Team Fortress 2: Every class has at least one unlockable with utility that is not strictly combat-related.
  • The Engineer:
    • The wrench, besides being a melee weapon on part with all other classes (except Scout), also repairs, upgrades and refills his buildings.
    • The Eureka Effect wrench can teleport him back to spawn or to his teleporter's exit, even if the entrance has not been built.
    • The Rescue Ranger shotgun can be used to pick up his buildings from a distance when you right-click, at the cost of 130 metal. The Rescue Ranger's shots also repair friendly buildings they hit, again at the cost of metal. That said, the projectile bolts it fires are fairly weak and difficult to aim compared to its hitscan alternatives.
  • The Pyro:
    • The Homewrecker allows them to whack the Spy's sappers off the Engineer's buildings. The Neon Annihilator has this ability as well, though it takes double the swings to destroy a sapper as a tradeoff for its better combat potential.
    • The flamethrowers can fire a blast of compressed air as their Secondary Fire. Aside from knocking back foes far away, it can be used to extinguish a burning teammate, reflect projectiles (i.e. rockets, grenades, flares, arrows, anything that isn't hitscan) to where the Pyro is aiming (whereupon the projectile switches sides), and blast away sticky bombs^note however, stickies don't get converted when airblasted.
    • Even shooting flames can be used for checking for spies or lighting your Sniper teammate's arrows.
  • The Scout has a large number of jump-improving weapons. Combined, they can have him jump higher, farther and even more times than his normal Double Jump.
    • The Force-A-Nature has massive recoil and knockback, so when aimed straight down it can be used as a third jump.^note After doing this, the Scout needs to wait 1.5s to use another shell to triple jump again.
    • The Atomizer adds an actual third jump on demand when Scout is wielding it, at the cost of 10 health.
    • The Soda Popper allows Scout to jump in midair up to five times when enough Hype is accumulated.
    • The Winger allows Scout to jump 25% higher when it's being brandished. This is enough to open several routes to the Scout that would otherwise be unreachable unless a triple jump is performed using another weapon. Combined with said other weapons, in certain maps you can reach out and touch the skybox.
  • The Medic's Crusader's Crossbow heals allies hit with the bolts and builds Übercharge, as well as damage enemies.
  • The Soldier's Disciplinary Action is a riding crop that, when hitting an ally, speeds up both players for a limited time.
• Half-Life 2's gravity gun can be used to lift objects around as well as punt them into enemies. It's also the only device capable of defusing Hopper mines.
• In Marathon, grenades and fusion bolts can (and sometimes must) be used to trigger switches from a distance.
• In Clive Barker's Undying, dynamite can be used to blow open certain walls.
• All Build Engine games (Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior, Blood, Redneck Rampage) have cracks in the walls that can be blown open with explosives. Explosives come in two varieties in these: a "rocket launcher" weapon a la Doom, and a ballistic thrown "grenade" or "dynamite" (Shadow Warrior has a grenade launcher instead).
• The Unreal Tournament series has the Translocator, which shoots a projectile and allows to the user to teleport to it. Aside from tactical movement utility, you can Tele-Frag enemies.
  • In 2004 and 3, the Link Gun fills this role, being given the ability to heal friendly vehicles and power nodes in Onslaught.
• In Prey (2017) the Huntress Boltcaster, a Nerf Brand Expy, can be used to trigger touch-operated buttons and screens, also to distract enemies or kill the smaller ones.
• The breaching shotgun in SWAT 4, which is a regular Sawn-Off Shotgun loaded with specialist shells designed to force open locked doors.

Miscellaneous

• In Glider PRO, rubber bands can be used to trip switches; they're more useful for this purpose than for killing enemies, which give out nothing and respawn quickly.

Platformer

• Ratchet's wrench in Ratchet & Clank is a decent melee weapon, but is also used to operate a few mechanisms that resemble large bolts.
• Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse: Sypha's ice power can be used to freeze the running water in stage 9, so you can simply walk on top of it and not get pushed by the current.
• Duke Nukem II's flamethrower can be used to boost yourself up, like a jetpack.
• The Apple ][ game Aztec (1982). The dynamite you found could be used to blow up enemies. It could also be used to blow holes in the floor, which could not only prevent enemies from reaching you but could also allow you to drop down to lower levels.
• The Mega Man series has several.
  • Mega Man has the Super Arm and the Thunder Beam, the former can be used to pick up those blocks in your way, while the latter can destroy them in a shot.
  • Mega Man 2 has Crash Bombs, useful for blowing up those otherwise indestructible doors. Bubble Lead can also be used to find the fake platforms with spikes underneath.
  • Mega Man 3 has the Hard Knuckle, which is the only weapon that can break those hard walls.
  • Mega Man 4 has the Drill Bomb, for breaking those hard walls.
  • Mega Man 6 has the Power Adapter, for breaking those hard walls—As well as pushing the big "X" blocks in Mr. X stage 4 to plug the bird chutes.
  • Mega Man 7 has several. The Freeze Cracker can be used to freeze instant-kill molten metal, Thunder Bolt can power up machines, while Scorch Wheel can burn off foliage and light up candles.
  • Mega Man 8: The Mega Ball can be bounced upon for a slightly higher jump than normal^note And with some skill and good timing, can be used in mid-air to continuously propel him upward. Tornado Hold can be used to rapidly damage an enemy, as well as lift Mega Man to a higher platform. Thunder Claw can be used to grab onto bars. Flame Sword lights fuses and burns the sticker-bushes in Search Man's stage.
    • The first part of Sword Man's stage is actually devoted to this, where the weapons of the first four bosses must be used to get through each section and open their gates. Tornado Hold to push the hovering bottom halves of switches into their tops; Thunder Claw to quickly push levers and stop One-Hit Kill spikes from getting to you; Flash Bomb to light up dark rooms and reveal symbols on their walls, the order of which decides that of some corresponding switches that follow; Ice Wave stopping some burners in a slide corridor.
  • Mega Man 9: Concrete Shot can be used to create platforms and block lasers. The Tornado Blow allows Mega Man to do a higher jump. The Hornet Chaser can pick up otherwise-unreachable items for Mega Man.
  • Mega Man 10: Commando Bomb, for breaking those hard walls. Wheel Chaser can also be used to scale up walls.
  • Mega Man 11: The Pile Driver allows Mega Man to do a fast dash in mid-air, making it easier to clear huge gaps in terrain.
  • Mega Man IV: Although they lacked the ability in the original series, the Rain Flush can stop the quicksand in Pharaoh Man's stage (also puts out the fires in Napalm Man's stage, but he represented a different game), the Ring Boomerang could fetch items for Megaman, and the Charge Kick can be used to break through blocks and open side rooms in the depths of Wily's ship.
  • Mega Man V: Buy the Magnet Hand item and the Mega Arm can grab items for the player. The Break Dash, a forward-charge attack, can clear obstructions.
  • Mega Man & Bass has several. Ice Wall can be used as an Improvised Platform that the player character can ride. Spread Drill is used for breaking those hard rocks. Wave Burner melts ice blocks, lights fuses, and if used underwater becomes a water jet that pushes Sea Mine obstacles away. Magic Card can fetch items for Megaman/Bass even through walls.
• And it creeps into the Mega Man X series as well. Multiple weapons are needed to solve puzzles and get new upgrades.
  • Mega Man X: Shotgun Ice can be charged to create a sled that X can ride to reach otherwise inaccessible places, charged Chameleon Sting gives X an invulnerability mode to traverse some dangerous sections or just speedrunning and Boomerang Cutter can be used to collect power-ups behind walls. Charged Rolling Shield gives him Deflector Shields.
  • Mega Man X2: X gets one of the biggest collections of utility weapons in this game. Strike Chain can be used to grasp to walls and collect items, Spin Wheel can destroy floors and some specific terrain, charged Bubble Splash allows higher jumping height underwater, Crystal Hunter can be used to crystalize enemies and create Improvised Platforms to access other areas, Speed Burner can be used as an additional air dash, and Charged Silk Shot can bring a good bit of energy items to X if used in the correct room.
  • Mega Man X3: Tornado Fang can be used to break cracked walls and the charged version allows X to cling indefinitely to a wall, charged Triad Thunder can make boulders and some structures fall to give access to additional rooms, charged Frost Shield acts like charged Shotgun Ice above, and charged Gravity Well can lift a platform used to reach the Body upgrade.
  • Mega Man X4: As Zero's first playable appearance, he gets one too. Lightning Web can be used as a wall for an additional jump, Rising Fire/Ryuenjin can be used to burn ice and wood to get some collectibles, Soul Body and Kuuenzan can be used to destroy the yellow cyber balls in Cyber Peacock's stage, and charged Twin Slasher can destroy some rocks.
  • Mega Man X5: Goo Shaver can destroy a placeholder unit to access one of X armor upgrades and Firefly Laser likewise is used to access another armor upgrade in a puzzle-like fashion. Ground Fire can burn wood.
  • Mega Man X6: Ice Burst can give X a chunk of ice as a platform to stand on, and Hyoroga allows Zero to cling to ceilings and dash one time. Also, the Nightmare phenomenon that occurs in other levels after you beat a certain boss can be destroyed/neutralized with said boss' weapon, i.e Ground Dash vs the colored blocks, Magma Blade vs the falling meteors, and Metal Anchor vs the moving iron blocks.
  • Mega Man X8: Zero's Tenshouha can be used to melt the ice that blocks the way to the armor capsule in Avalanche Yeti's level; any electric weapons can be used to power the generator in Dark Mantis' level to turn the lights on; Zero's Dairettsui (used with the T-Breaker hammer) can be used to break the breakable platform in Burn Rooster's stage to find a Rare Metal in the opened passage; fire weapons can be used to destroy the canisters blocking the armor capsule in Earthrock Trilobyte's stage; and charged Crystal Wall can be used to unearth Rare Metal in the right places. Most of the time, if you choose Palette as your navigator, she'll point out secrets in the stage along with hinting to you about what you need to use to get it.
• Mega Man Zero: Zero's rod weapons are often also used for utility; Triple Rod (beam spear) can be used to bounce over enemies (usually to jump over a passage), Chain Rod (beam chain) is for pulling shields off enemies (and pulling them close to you), pulling life and weapon energy towards you, rappel towards a wall or a ceiling/floating platform (and then swing around), and Recoil Rod (beam tonfas) is for pushing/breaking certain obstacles, as well as giving you a high jump, either from the ground or on top of an enemy. Zero Knuckle in the fourth game can be used to pluck the artificial vines in Noble Mandrago's stage and the control switches in Popla Cocapetri's stage quickly. It can also be used to pick up certain items off enemies or stage hazards that is used for a few puzzles, i.e the drill ememy's drill is used to drill through stone blocks, the card key enemy gives you access to one Subtank, and the lamp in Fenri Lunaedge's stage is used to repel the Scrap Elves and (with the right weather) push them towards the sunlight, killing them.
• Mega Man Zx: Your acquired Biometals often have utility functions that your starting one (Models Z and X) lacks. Model H is good for mobility and its Enemy Scan, its electric attack can be used to activate things while its tornado attack is used to lift some platforms. Model F can have its bullets' trajectory be manipulated to shoot through niches, while its Charged Attack can break blocks and burn things. Model L is used to traverse underwater and scan items in the area; its Charged Attack creates an ice platform like charged Shotgun Ice above. Model P gives you clearer look at blackout stages and has an Enemy-Detecting Radar. The second game gives even more of this, due to the protagonists outright being able to transform into bosses; whenever they defeat a boss and acquire their form, there'll be a section right after the boss where Model A will teach you the form's uses with the obstacles of the section. E.g. the Chronoforce form is used for swimming underwater and protecting against spikes and some attacks with its shell, and the Queenbee form is used to fly around and dock into heavy stuff/switches.
• In Azure Striker Gunvolt, Gunvolt's electricity powers can be used to activate machinery. For example, on the first level, he encounters a broken elevator. By shooting lightning rods at the elevator's power source, he can use his electricity to activate it.
• Kirby will often encounter stage hazards and implements that he'd need to interact with his Copy Ability and/or game-specific abilities to pass through, or to collect goodies, collectables, and Plot Coupons. Fuses can be lit with Fire or other abilities that have attacks that are on fire, plugs can be shocked with Spark, ropes can be cut with Sword or Cutter, pegs can be smashed with Hammer or Stone, and so on.

Puzzle

• Rocks N Diamonds has a downloadable Zelda Level which has bombs destroy certain walls and objects.

Real Time Strategy

• Treasure Planet: Battle at Procyon has several:
  • Grav Charges are a medium weapon that don't do any damage, instead they create a small field with its own gravitational pull, which can be useful for stopping ships (especially fast ships) for boarding or making them an easy target for a broadside. Grav Charges also reveal hidden submarines.
  • The Energy Net, similar to the Grav Charge, is a medium weapon that doesn't deal any damage, but can temporarily disable sails, slowing them down the ship to make it an easy target for broadsides or boarding. Unlike the Grav Charge, however, the Energy Net also reduces the rate of fire of ships it hits.
  • The Harpoon Gun is a light weapon that fires a grappling hook, which does a random amount of damage (ranging from very low, to very high for a light gun) and has a relatively low rate of fire, its main use however, is enabling the player to grapple enemy ships, which can be used for manipulating the movement of hostile ships and is a prerequisite to boarding. Grappling hooks can even tear ships apart if two ships grapple one and move in the opposite direction.
  • The underside-mounted Light Lancers cannot be used to target enemy ships, but will automatically fire upon incoming torpedoes and mines.
• Warcraft III:
  • Maiev's Blink spell is a short-ranged teleport used to let her catch enemies, escape danger, or position herself more efficiently. The campaign puts it to good use by adding a bewildering variety of areas she can explore with it, often with powerful items waiting for her.
  • Kael'thas' Flame Strike spell summons a big pillar of fire that hurts all units caught in it. It also kills trees, allowing it to be used to find hidden areas and secrets.

Role Playing Game

• In Skyrim, mining picks (and other tools) are needed to carry out certain actions, but can also be equipped as weapons (indeed, some NPCs will use them as an Improvised Weapon).
  • In fact, mining ore can be done faster by wielding the pick as a weapon and "attacking" the ore-vein (just don't hit any nearby NPCs). This can also be used to mine an ore-vein an NPC is interacting with instead of waiting for them to leave. The woodcutter's ax does not function the same way unfortunately.
• In-universe in Fallout 4: the Super-Sledge (a sledgehammer with rockets attached) and Power Fist (pneumatically-actuated gauntlet) were construction items that were appropriated by the Wastelanders as weapons after the bombs fell. Unfortunately, the Ridiculously Fast Construction of the settlement building mode doesn't allow for an in-game construction use of either weapon.
• In Pokémon, there are Hidden Machines, which not only teach mons attacks you can use in battles but also outside of battles to bypass barriers. In addition, some non-HM moves like Flash or Headbutt can also be used outside battle (but aren't typically needed to progress through the story).
• In Arcanum, axes and hammers can be used to open stubborn doors and chests. You could also use a sword to smash them open, but it'd be more likely to break.
• Final Fantasy Adventure: Once you've collected the basic weapons of each type, the game doesn't let you sell them. This is because you need them to progress through the game, using chains to swing across chasms, the sickle to cut plants out of the way, etc. (Unfortunately, inventory space is rather limited, and you're not allowed to sell the basic weapons even if you have much more powerful versions that can perform the same utility function.)
• In Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, every weapon you get can be used in a non-combat situation: Axes obviously cut down trees, bombs open sealed passages, the claw weapons allow you to scale walls (with the ultimate version, the Dragon Claw, allowing you to grapple distant objects), and your sword can poke switches in hard-to-reach places (which only even comes up in two dungeons).
• The various Golden Sun games have items that teach psynergy that can not only be used in battle but also on the world map to do things like turn puddles into platforms.
• In Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, the Sol Blade doubles as a literal key to the Bonus Dungeons.
• Genshin Impact:
  • Claymores, and thus their users, can smash iron, crystal chunks, and breakable walls quicker than other weapons. Some chests are also covered in rocks, which are easily broken by Claymore wielders.
  • Ningguang and Klee can also break ore veins quickly with their launched stones and bombs.
  • Pyro users can burn brambles or melt ice in order to unlock some paths or treasure chests.
  • Anemo users can activate pinwheels, which often lead up to secret paths, treasure chests, or upward wind currents.
  • Cryo users can freeze water surfaces, which allows them (and the party) to cross bodies of water without having to swim.
  • Some Geo characters' elemental skills create Improvised Platforms which can be climbed up and stood on, mostly for platforming purposes. The Geo-elemental Traveler can crate a small meteor made of rock, Zhongli can create a tall rock pillar, while Albedo can spawn a flower platform that floats after a short delay.
  • Bow users can charge their shots with elements. Aside from combat, this helps in activating element switches and torches from a distance without relying on elemental skills (which come with a cooldown).
• In Stardew Valley, adding the Haymaker enchantment to your sword allows you to turn dungeon weeds into fodder for your livestock. Bombs, meanwhile, can damage enemies (including permanently killing mummies) and blow up stones and ores without costing energy.
• Tower of Fantasy:
  • Your weapon shatter rate remains the same regardless of its level, so some players bring in an un-upgraded high shatter weapon solely to help break boss shields. Hilda's Terminator, for instance, is a high-shatter ranged weapon that everyone is practically guaranteed to have (as an SR), and gets brought out to break the shields of the airborne Interdimensional Frostfire Dragon.
  • Zero's Negating Cube creates 5 orbs that damage enemies close to the user, which players use to AFK farm honeycombs and even mount parts.
  • Elemental weapons can destroy crystal formations of their matching elements, yielding elemental ores for weapon upgrades. Fire weapons can burn Kerosenia, Tar Pits, and Thornvines that block chests and orbs containing nuclei. Ice weapons are useful to cool off lava puzzles and gain nuclei.
  • Long-ranged weapons can shoot down dandelions and drones containing nuclei with ease, and snipe the floating elemental orbs to unlock certain supply pods in Vera.

Roguelike

• In NetHack, any item can be thrown at a monster or wielded and be used to bash a monster. While some non-weapon items will cause specific effects upon hitting a monster, there are some weapon items that have non-combat uses:
  • Bladed weapons can be used to pry open locked chests, though doing this carries the risk of breaking the weapon.
  • Pointy or sharp metallic weapons can be used to engrave words into the floor, though this is slow and dulls the weapon. But an athame (a specific type of dagger) can not only engrave without becoming dull but also engraves much faster than other weapons.
  • Wands of fire and lightning can be used to throw bolts of fire and bolts of lightning at monsters, but can also be used to burn words into the floor.
  • Wands of striking, in addition to being used to strike monsters, can be used to destroy statues and boulders.
  • Wand of cold can be used to freeze pools of water into solid ice, which is useful since your character comes with Super Drowning Skills.
  • Pickaxes and mattocks are considered weapons, but can also be used to tunnel through walls, destroy boulders and statues, dig pits in the floor, and dig holes through the floor which let you fall down to the next dungeon level.
  • A bullwhip can be used to pick an object up off the ground if you're floating or riding an animal, to fish an item out of a pool of water, or can wrap around a large object and be used to pull you out of a pit.
• In Dwarf Fortress, dwarves use battleaxes for woodcutting as well as a weapon, rather than have any form of separate woodcutting axe. Additionally, while picks are normally regarded as tools first and weapons second, they're surprisingly effective as either, due to a rather deadly piercing attack as well as its combat use relying on the mining skill (unlike axes, which use separate skills for combat use and woodcutting).
• The bombs in The Binding of Isaac have two main uses beyond killing enemies. They can destroy rocks, which may be blocking off areas containing something more valuable than a bomb, or could fall into a gap that's doing the same, or may be tinted rocks that contain valuable items in and of themselves. They can also breach any door that's not locked, letting you escape the room without having to deal with the enemies, especially useful in later levels.

Simulation

• The particle projector cannon in MechWarrior Living Legends is a potent long-ranged Plasma Cannon, but it has great utility (or griefing) potential in its ability to screw with electronics and sensors. If an ally has an enemy NARC missile beacon on them, you can splash their feet with the PPC to destroy the NARC. The EMP effect also temporarily disables nightvision, allowing you to blind enemies at night. In the game's Tournament Play, each side would typically bring at least one PPC-equipped mech to strip enemy NARC beacons.
• Project Zomboid allows you to explore this trope extensively, since there are more "weapons" that have mundane uses than don't. Hammers, knives, and frying pans are all usable both for their intended purposes and for dispatching zombies. Even pens and pencils can be used as weapons, although they're atrocious at it and much better kept for making notes on maps and writing on notebooks and paper sheets.

Survival Horror

• Gloomwood: The Undertaker Pistol is a customized, silenced pistol that can be used to fire three different kinds of ammunition: a slug that breaks lights and windows from a distance, an incendiary projectile that ignites enemies and objects, and a pellet that releases a cloud of gas that extinguishes fires and briefly stuns enemies.
• All of Silent Hill: Homecoming's melee weapons. The knife can tear through layers of cloth/tissue, the pipe can force locks open, the axe can cut down planks boarding doors shut, etc.
  • Similarly done in Silent Hill: Downpour.
• The weapons in Dead Space are only used to kill enemies, but within the game's lore, most of them are actually heavy-duty mining and engineering tools that happen to be very good at dismembering necromorphs.

Wide Open Sandbox

• The Hookblade from Assassin's Creed: Revelations is used for getting around the city and cutting folk up.
• In Destroy All Humans!, the Anal Probe can (if used on a human when fully charged) cause the target's brain to pop out, allowing you to extract the DNA and use it to buy upgrades.
• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild takes this to extremes since every weapon in the game has some level of non-combat utility based on its different properties (though some are better at specific tasks than others). Sharp weapons such as swords and axes can be used to cut down trees and grass, blunt and heavy two-handed weapons can smash open ore deposits, metal weapons channel electricity to be used in circuit puzzles or strike flint to start fires, wooden weapons can be used as a makeshift torch, fire and ice weapons can keep Link at comfortable temperatures in places of extreme cold and heat, etc...
• In the Rune Factory series, you can use swords in place of your sickle and your war hammers in place of your normal hammer (though not nearly as efficiently as the normal tools). This comes in handy in RF3, where using battle hammers during mining can yield metal ores like iron and copper more often than your leveled-up tool hammer (which tends to cough up jewels and crystals).
• Almost every weapon in Minecraft has some non-combat utility. Swords let you break several blocks faster than by hand, including breaking bamboo plants instantly (for the other blocks this applies to, swords are slower than their designated tool, however); axes are used for mining wood-type blocks and stripping logs and copper; tridents can break dripstone and when enchanted can summon lightning or fling you through water and rain; projectiles in general can trigger target blocks; arrows can push wooden buttons and if fired from enchanted bows can melt powder snow and light TNT; and pickaxes, hoes, and shovels are all used for breaking non-wood solid, particulate, and non-wood organic blocks respectively, among other functions (although that's closer to a case of Improvised Weapon, as none of them are as good as the dedicated weapons above).
• Both hammers and swords in Dragon Quest Builders can be used for combat and harvesting materials, though only hammers can break down blocks. This is downplayed significantly in the sequel, where hammers do barely any damage at all (outside of stone enemies) and are mapped to a separate button to keep the player from accidentally destroying the environment during combat.

Non-Video Game Examples

• While Real Life tends to be devoid of (deliberately designed) puzzles like the ones you'd find in games, certain objects which might be used as weapons (knives, small axes, entrenching tools) tend to be useful for more peaceful purposes.
• World War Z gives us the Lobotomizer, an axe that's also a shovel. So you can fortify your position and then kill the shit out of zombies. And then give them a proper burial because you're classy like that. The description sounds a lot like a Monk's spade, a weapon that serves as a shovel to respectfully bury any corpses found during travel but also sharpened as a weapon to fend off bandits (which the previous book, The Zombie Survival Guide, mentioned).
  • Truth in Television: entrenching tools from both WWI and WWII were often sharpened for use as weapons.
• Machetes or khukris also get a mention in The Zombie Survival Guide as being rather effective melee weapons but also useful for clearing brush, splitting firewood, and a number of other wilderness survival tasks.
• Any gun Smith gets his hands on in Shoot 'Em Up, via trick shots. Mainly used to traverse or manipulate the environment around him during a firefight.
• In the fanfic Accident: Month One, we have the Fenton Broom. It cleans up messes and can be used to both whack and shock ghosts. Its third quality is that ghosts can't phase through it, making it an ideal clean-up tool for Danny to use as long as he doesn't press the taser button by accident again.
• Ringworld: The starship which the Puppeteers outfitted for the mission had nothing that could be called a weapon per se... but is so chock-full of tools that can be fiddled with to make them into weapons, like flashlights than can act as deadly lasers with enough focusing, that Louis Wu christens it 'Lying Bastard' in recognition of its deceptive design.
• Like most huntsmen in RWBY, Professor Oobleck carries a customized and extremely powerful Swiss-Army Weapon. His is called Antiquity’s Roast, a club crossed with a flamethrower that can also collapse into a functioning thermos.
• On the Discworld the classic dwarfish axe design is a pickaxe on one side and a battleaxe on the other. According to the books, the pickaxe side is because you never know where you'll find interesting minerals, and the battleaxe side is because sometimes people whose land contains interesting minerals are just unreasonable about it.
• In the military, breaching shotguns served as a means of shooting open doors by blowing out their hinges and/or locks. The aptly named KAC Masterkey and the M26 serve as attachments for an assault rifle that negate the need to carry a separate shotgun in the first place (the latter can be fitted with a pistol grip and stock to turn it into a standalone weapon, though).
• In Starfinder, there are a few different weapon properties that allow for this:
  • "Breach" allows you to set up next to an obstacle and (provided that you're trained in Engineering) use your Strength modifier to bust the barrier as usual, adding the weapon's item level to the check. The aptly-named Breaching Gun is this as well as Penetrating; they see use on Absalom Station as a high-powered fireman's battering ram but are generally used by Space Pirates for door-kicking and stuff-taking.
  • "Penetrating" is primarily useful against armour and the like, but also works as a rather quicker (and ranged) alternative to Breach if you need to get through that wall right this second. The Dross Gun is an excellent example, a scavenger's tool that is also a refreshingly consistent Disintegrator Ray.
  • "Extinguish" is pretty much Exactly What It Says on the Tin, allowing you to douse flames on yourself, an ally, or in an area if the weapon is already an area weapon. Foam Grenades are a fun example, and can be used to neutralise ongoing acid effects.
  • "Injection" can be used to shoot your allies with medicinals/serums, your enemies with poisons, or wild animals with Tranquillizer Darts. "Needlers" come in handy dandy Pistol, Rifle, and single-shot "Wraith-Sting" forms, as well as the mildly disturbing Injection Spear familiar to Pathfinder players. The Biohacker class is especially good at using these, being proficient in all of them, not hurting their allies, and gaining various buffs (and debuffs) they can apply at-range.
  • "Professional" is for weapons that are also tools, as well as tools that are also weapons. They give a bonus to appropriate Profession checks, and anyone with enough skill ranks is considered proficient with the weapon. The miner's Excavation Laser and Seismic Pick are good examples; the latter is primarily a tool at lower levels, with the advanced models being constructed as powerful weapons of war. As one might expect, both are Penetrating weapons.
• The German newspaper comic strip Vater und Sohn once features a rifle being used to fire raisins into a cake after the eponymous father and son forgot to add the raisins before baking.
• Girl Genius: A lot of the weapons in the Wulfenbach arsenal are like this. Mecha-moles can be used for mining and tunneling for infrastructure... or for sapping city walls. The mirrors of the heliographs can be used as an optic telegraph to signal morse code with light on a huge scale... or focus sunlight into a Death Ray that can burn cities. The armor and gas projectors that make Wulfenbach firefighters a blessing in a housefire can just as easily be used to distribute chemical weapons.
• Miraculous Ladybug: The weapons used by the Miraculous Holders (yes, even the villains) have all sorts of extra functions: cell phone access, trackers, doubles as a rebreather, etc. Cat Noir's staff can be used as a periscope, and Ladybug's yo-yo can catch and purify the akuma butterflies (and amok feathers). This is beside the obvious on-the-spot utilities of a yo-yo with an absurdly long, unbreakable string, and a staff that can extend to any length.
• Spider-Man has found all sorts of uses for his webbing. Besides being an easy mode of transportation through web-swinging, Spidey's used his webs to give falling people (including himself) a safe landing, to catch debris before it can fall on anyone or hold it in place, and as a shield or barrier to protect himself and others from attacks and explosions.
• There's a few examples in Star Trek
  • The phasers have so many more settings than just as a gun (which can swap between a Static Stun Gun and various intensities of Death Ray when used in an arming capacity). They can be used to heat materials (like rocks to make woodless campfires), and as emergency power packs. Lower Decks even has them used as pressure washers for cleaning air filters (and graffiti).
  • In an episode where Worf goes on a quest to find The Sword Of Kahless, the blade used by the warrior-savior of Klingon culture. After finding it he's horrified his companion wants to use it for mundane purposes like cooking meat, demanding it be treated with respect. The companion points out that according to the legends of Kahless, the sword was already used for mundane purposes like harvesting crops, skinning animals, and carving a statue.
• In Yokoka's Quest, as a giant boar-goat is charging at Mao, he uses his whip to latch onto chains bordering the arena and swing out of the way of danger.

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