7 Amazing Rewards You Got Too Late for Them to Be Useful

[@J624]

This is why New Game + needs to be more common. You play through the game as designed once, then you get the amazing, game-breaking item at the start of your second playthrough.

[@stone5against1]

Definitely. What I like to do is play a metroidvania twice in a row (if I liked it enough, that is) and breaking the game flow by taking shortcuts I know are there, but had no reason to know about the first playthrough. I had lots of fun replaying Hollow Knight the second time, using techniques I didn't know existed the first time to reach "impossible" places

[@faealiciadotsys]

Agreed. It's like Queen Sigma in Vampire Survivors. Give us a NG+ mode where it's basically a victory lap where you're OP as all f*ck and get to show your enemies who's *actually* the boss. A reward for all your hard work and patience. The harder modes should also be available, but having that victory lap is undeniably an amazing and worthwhile mechanic.

[@stone5against1]

@@faealiciadotsys oh god yeah! games that the ng+ is just.. as you said.. a victory lap.. no challenge, just restarting the base game super overpowered

[@jardex2275]

Which isn't as game breaking when faced against waves of remixed enemies.

[@J624]

@@jardex2275 But that's the whole point of the weapon, to break the game and just feel overpowered. Remixing the enemies to nerf the power of the supreme item just makes it like any other item.

[@Kurlija]

The first thing that came to mind was the Fallout 2 Hintbook, which you can get from Father Tully in New Reno after beating the game. It yields 10,000 XP, increases all skills to 300%, and can be used an infinite amount of times. Even better, the in-game description says: "Well, THIS would have been good to have at the beginning of the goddamn game."

[@arkusam1373]

Was looking for someone else to have said it haha

[@3possumsinatrenchcoat]

tbf, that's at least leaning into it being a useless joke. the rest of these feel like they're treated by the game as stuff you can actually make use of.

[@johnyshadow]

@@3possumsinatrenchcoat Eh, there are basically 3 sub-categories to this. (That I can think of.) 1) NG+ stuff. A way to make your next run easier/not as repetitive. 2) Stuff to just mess around with. Or "endgame" content. (Only works if you can/want to continue playing after the ending.) 3) The truly useless stuff. No endgame, no NG+. You get this toy to fight the big bad, and then the credits roll. The End. (I´d put the normal rocket launcher from RE here, not the infinite one, because you only get to shoot the final boss with it, and can´t carry it over into new game.

[@3possumsinatrenchcoat]

​@@johnyshadowthat's definitely fair! curious if you'd consider that damn skyrim gem quest reward as one, and if so how your categorize it? (it's like. 20% chance of more gold? gems? in chests... after you've probably scoured the entire game like six times over pillaging every chest and exhausted most story/sidequests trying to find the dang things.)

[@johnyshadow]

@@3possumsinatrenchcoat Definitely number 3. If I ever actually got it, that is. I always tried, but there just seemed to be 1 or 2 missing at the end. And I couldn´t be bothered to look it up at a wiki/guide. Well, perhaps I´m not being entirely fair. It just doesn´t suit my playstyle. I try to do everything I possibly can, before progressing the story, so by the time I´d get it, it wouldn´t be that useful anyway. Perhaps if you could get it earlier, it might be helpful... (But to be honest, It simply doesn´t sound that fun or exciting. For me the greater reward would be actually finding the damn thing, then I´d just throw it into a chest with the rest of my -junk- treasures.) All the Deadric artifacts on the other hand... now that was fun. (number 2)

[@west3Dgaming]

Luigi as an afterthought is essential to the character

[@Toschez]

And he isn’t useful or better like infinite rocket launcher.

[@whisperinwind87]

I'm pretty sure you can re-beat the game with him to get bonus content, I'ts just a different ending photo with lore implications but it's still something

[@TheGhostInThePhoto]

@@SimuLord Or that you _were_ the older sibling, but got forced to be Player 2 by a younger sibling who refused to not be Player 1.

[@JoeMH1995]

Nintendo is going to do a 40 minute presents breaking down the painstaking process of re-casting Mario. Then spend the last few seconds sayings "also Luigi is silent now".

[@CodaBlair]

@@whisperinwind87 there's also a unique star in that ending.

[@lnsflare1]

At least the Shield Weaver armor can be gotten before playing the Frozen Wilds DLC, which is reasonably huge and has the hardest content in the game.

[@DJAB87]

Plus it comes in handy for ultra hard mode.

[@keyblademasterclark]

and it transfers over when you do a NG+

[@timelessnugget]

And you have it at the beginning of forbidden West, but the batteries have died. 😢

[@keyblademasterclark]

@@timelessnugget yeah, it's not nearly as useful in FW

[@lnsflare1]

@@timelessnugget To be fair, you can get a Valor Surges to temporarily activate it fairly early, if you want.

[@ChristophBrinkmann]

Zelda 64's Gold Skull Spider quest comes to mind. Kill 100 to get infinite money...once you're at the final area in the game

[@HylianFox3]

And there's really nothing to spend money on anyway

[@BlueThunder1988]

Yeah...just blue potions perhaps.

[@DarkEclipse23]

Not as bad as getting all 120 stars in Mario 64 just to be able to use the cannon outside and get 100 lives. 😂

[@BlueThunder1988]

@@DarkEclipse23 yup. At that point, it's pure trash.

[@CodaBlair]

Correction: once you unlock Luigi, you're meant to play through the game again at which point you can get the true final star.

[@ferd617]

Isn't *Luigi* himself the _true_ fina-hahahaha! I thought I could do it, but I just couldn't keep a straight face.

[@KaizoeAzurum]

@@ferd617 Luigi is the true final star, yes! And there is nothing funny about that.

[@ferd617]

@@KaizoeAzurum Well, no, no there isn't... anymore. Now you actually made it super sad, and I'm worried you'll be offended that I'm looking at you like you're in a wheelchair.

[@KaizoeAzurum]

@@ferd617 I won't, you seem to be a chromosome collector, so it's okay. And your collection seems huge, with the fastest ones you could find.

[@BlueThunder1988]

I found it a bit disappointing that not much changes for his playthrough.

[@sirflimflam]

It's things like this that really require a NG+ mode to appreciate. Getting the extended master sword and bike when I had nothing really left to do just felt lame. Had you been able to start a new game with those in your inventory, or even unlocked earlier in the story, it would have gone a long way to feel good.

[@DanStaal]

Which is really the point the the shield weaver armor from Horizon Zero Dawn - it does carry to the NG+ mode, and you can play NG+ on higher difficulty than the original play through.

[@pyrotempestwing]

I mean Super Luigi Galaxy is a NG+.

[@Matthew-pd4zx]

This reminded me of getting Legion in Mass Effect 2. Such a cool and unique character, one of my favourites. You want to spend time with him but at that point in the game you've already done everything noteworthy.

[@fakjbf3129]

Not just that, you are actively punished for doing more than two missions between when you can unlock him and the final main mission.

[@spritemon98]

You can actually get him first before even meeting the council and meeting tali

[@LtBasil]

You can put some missions off until after you complete the main story though. Particularly the DLCs. I like taking Legion with me for Overlord and/or Lair of the Shadow Broker.

[@davidmcgill1000]

To be fair, you can take him with you when you go to help Tali and it's hilarious.

[@FelisImpurrator]

It's lame how they accidentally ruined some of the best lines in the game (which you can practically only get by cheating) by making Legion a late game addition instead of a first half party member. Probably a late dev cycle change.

[@Swiftstorm86]

When I saw Mario Galaxy on this list, I assumed they were going to talk about the Red Star! You have to beat the game, getting most of the stars and finding hidden green stars as well, and your reward is that it lets you FLY (albeit only in select non-level locations)! Yes, thanks, that would have been very handy a bit earlier!

[@yeetboi2409]

Same

[@SolstaceWinters]

I thought the same thing, how weird to talk about Luigi instead. That's just New Game+ mechanics.

[@BlueThunder1988]

Yup...pretty much no point to it!

[@pokedude720]

Uhm, achtually the requirements is just going into the Gate on the way to the Garden Dome. 🤓

[@noahjimison4603]

Unlocking Luigi actually essentially opens a new game +. You are now tasked with recollecting all the stories with Luigi. Once you've collected every star with both Mario and Luigi, it unlocks the Grand Finale galaxy. Still annoying and tedious, but calculatedly so.

[@ShenDoodles]

Some of the missions change too, Shadow Luigi’s a much tougher foe than Shadow Mario.

[@AdrianColley]

In _Stray,_ the reward for collecting all of the memories is a new cool-looking harness for the player. The earliest possible time you can get it is in the last room of the game. It gets taken from you anyway before you even leave that room.

[@Monkeyzforever]

You do keep it if you skip around in chapter select though (iirc) so if you were... say... doing that first chase 5000 times to try and get the hitless trophy you'll probably see the new backpack for a longer time overall than the normal one. Definitely not referencing personal experience 😂

[@massgunner4152]

And there isnt much replay value beyond doing the memory stuff either.

[@Trakker1985]

This is why all games need newgame+ We've beaten the game properly, now let us play for shits and giggles with all the OP stuff we have earned!

[@Bakuru]

Games that do this now are just the best 💯 when I first saw this with Spider Man, where you get to keep everything and do the stroy over again, but you can make it harder so that you have USE for all that shxt? More games need to follow their example 🤣

[@barret-xiii]

I'd add that games with NG+ should also NOT artificially buff enemies to effectively put it on the same "challenge" level as a vanilla game. One thing that annoys me with Soulslikes is how they always do the basic bitch stat buffs on NG+, giving enemies more health and a little more damage, so all your gear/stat upgrades that made revisiting early stages effortless now feel like you just started a typical new game, but with extra starting items. Dragon's Dogma was nice enough to avert this completely, and not only are early areas pitifully easy on NG+, you can grow so much to the point the base game's endgame content also becomes laughably easy after a couple replays. The Dark Arisen expansion also makes this kind of NG+ design crucial to the game's enjoyment, since they made all the new content insanely tough compared to the base game.

[@thegrouchization]

Bonus points if NG+ has additional dialogue with the characters reacting to your blatant overpoweredness. CrossCode did that (and even came up with in-universe justifications for you starting out with all of your stuff), and it made the second playthrough just as interesting as the first.

[@jaredcrabb]

​@@barret-xiii Dragon's Dogma you can also get those items at the very beginning of the game if you want, itll just be very hard.

[@Veladus]

Horizon Zero Dawn HAS new game plus, I don't know what it's doing in this video. It also has a DLC with *absurdly* powerful enemies. God damned fireclaws make every enemy in the original game look like the first goomba in SMB.

[@scarletcroc3821]

I know that Legion from Mass Effect isn’t a reward technically, but you get him so late in the game that it’s kinda dumb. He’s one of the most unique characters in the whole series and you spend maybe 10% of the game with him

[@rundown132]

legion with widowmaker is pretty nutty too

[@thegrouchization]

It's lessened a bit in Legion's case given that unlike 1 and 3, ME2 lets you continue your save file after the endgame, so you can always leave all the side missions and DLC for then and play with them for that.

[@adamstringer7092]

Modders unlocked in game files that show Legion was supposed to appear much earlier. Maybe the developers didn’t want the headache of every character the player meets saying “why does Shepard have a Geth following them around?”.

[@antonyduhamel1166]

You can also acquire Legion much earlier if you're willing to sacrifice your (non combat team) crew. You only need to do 5 missions after Horizon to get the Collector Ship mission and immediately after that you can do Reaper IFF. Honestly, Legion doesn't interact very much on other character's missions except for Tali's, so getting him late isn't a huge deal to me. Having an extra Widow on your side is nice but only on the top 2 difficulties.

[@ka-mai]

@@antonyduhamel1166 that's exactly what people are talking about, Legion doesn't have much content because he is added too late, and it is a shame

[@roun4878]

This reminded me of the sword in Metal Gear Solid 2. It was listed in the instruction manual as one of the weapon in game and you don’t get it until the very end and spend the end of the game panicked trying to figure out a new melee weapon that’s your only weapon when you’ve had guns all game.

[@marielsalas853]

Probably in most lists already but no stone unturned in Skyrim is not only incredibly long but also gives you a perk to make money easier in a stage where money has become pretty much meaningless

[@johnbuck4395]

Yup, not to mention some of the Stones are in points of no return as well as a few main quest areas like the thalmor embassy mission, plus with how many people probably know about the merchant chests like in Markarth and Dawnstar

[@typacsk]

I believe that one made it into their "7 Terrible Rewards" video, so somebody on the crew clearly has some opinions about it XD

[@philiphunn194]

The Shield-Weaver comes in very handy in NG+ - even after Guerrilla nerfed it in a patch. The only time it’s truly useless is at the beginning of Forbidden West, since its battery is dead.

[@evillordbeerus2455]

They could make a list of 70 on this one, feels like every game has this going.

[@Zezlemet]

It's even a trope the infinity +1 🗡️ or bragging rights reward

[@leobustos740]

Game design 101 lmao

[@ledumpsterfire6474]

It's a problem. Developers need to stop worrying so much about people enjoying their work the "right way." Like Soulslikes and their anti-life having save systems. Or both them and games like the Monster Hunter series not allowing pausing even when you're playing offline. Or yes, gating fun items behind 99% of the game where they become effectively pointless, because god forbid a player get to experience a little power fantasy if they want it. Let people play the game the way they enjoy playing the game ffs. You can make it clear that there's a way you intended it to be played, you could even introduce your gating into harder or just separate difficulty modes, but leave it open for people who want to play differently, or have already beat it the intended way so they just want to experiment with their experience.

[@dinoshotgun]

@@ledumpsterfire6474you want to know the irony of the monster hunter no pause thing. You used to be able to actually pause the game, yes it was hidden behind menus, but you could actually pause, (during the 3DS era) Unfortunately this changed fairly recently and now say goodbye to pausing

[@NMN]

To be fair the Shieldweaver from HZD came in useful for the Frozen Wilds DLC which was a lot tougher than the main campaign, and also I found the very last boss fight of the main game had a *lot* of chip damage that would make the fight a painful battle of attrition no matter how much healing you were carrying, and the SW armour negated nearly all of that.

[@Veladus]

Goddamn Fireclaws are *still* the hardest enemy even in Forbidden West!

[@bloodshard18]

The first thing that came to mind for me was the zenith in Terraria, where you'd have to kill the final boss likely several times before obtaining it. After which, it's little more than a shiny trophy as there's nothing left to bother.

[@stv0036]

Zenith stands as an achievement for the grind. I would argue the portal gun as so many better mobility options are better and accessible earlier.

[@utubeiskaren7796]

Not just likely, guaranteed, because several of the items you need are dropped by the final boss, who can only drop one of those items per kill.

[@_BBAGG_]

@@utubeiskaren7796 on expert mode and above, treasure bags can drop multiple, I got Stars Wrath and Meowmare from the same bag, but still had to still kill moon lord a 2nd time for enough Luminite to make the Full Molten Armor set

[@disarisumbrus4492]

at least in terraria's case there's tmodloader, grab calamity with the unnerfs calamity mod and you have an entire half a game to just shred through with it

[@bloodshard18]

@@disarisumbrus4492 yeah, but that's mods

[@faupel]

I felt this way about the assistant manager in Arcade Paradise. I was actively trying to get the AM, but unless you halt your main story progress you get them way to late for it to matter

[@thatguy088]

Couple others (that both fit the same vein): Assassin's Creed 4: For solving all the puzzles you get an armor that makes you bulletproof, unfortunately the last puzzle is gated until just before the final mission. Shadow Complex: A suit that makes you indestructible, but you only get it at 100% completion. Like... you did everything, why be indestructible now?

[@Storm0483]

Yesss, the black flag one was very annoying because I saw the reward and had been going out of my way to collect all the required collectibles early in the playthrough. Only 2 were left and I couldn't go to the mentioned locations no matter what, and I realized I needed to progress far into the story to get the rest.

[@sirennightshade4977]

Also: the Dragon Rend shout in Skyrim. Great, now that you've probably done literally everything else and became a master dragon slayer, NOW you get the shout that knocks dragons to the ground for easier slaying.

[@raulcerna1093]

​@@sirennightshade4977At least in Skyrim you still have the DLCs and tons of quests and dragons still attack you even if you do the final mission .

[@NocturnalDecay]

Someone already suggested the Omnipotent Orb from Persona 3 which negates all damage except Almighty, but I'd like to go a step higher and suggest the Omnipotent Orb from Persona 5 Strikers. Which you can only get by 1. Beating the game 2. Beating all the main bosses a second time through the Requests system (yes including the final boss, who has two phases) 3. Beating the Reaper superboss, which normally just gives you Joker's best weapon 4. Starting a NG+ on the highest difficulty (note: NG+ only unlocks after beating said superboss) 5. Repeat steps 1-3 in Merciless Mode. This stupid thing requires you to beat P5S's final boss FOUR TIMES, and if you have it there's literally nothing else left in the entire game unless you somehow still haven't gotten the platinum trophy.

[@rickimaru915]

In Spyro the Dragon 2 your reward for achieving 100% completion is an infinite super flame power up, which is pretty much useless at that point

[@Buglin_Burger7878]

It was possible to transfer it to a fresh save file.

[@XannolcZ]

​@Dragoonsoul-ut2sn you stop your lying right this instant!

[@chrisgreen2899]

Its true in the original at least not sure of the remake. You had to get the powerup save and start a new game on the same file.

[@crashtefano]

Unless you've left skill points behind. In that case you can go back to any level and have a powerful tool to traverse it with ease as you collect any skill point you missed, especially the ones that involve defeating bosses without taking damage

[@user-hi4sm3ig5j]

First thing that came to mind was Lanius' giant sword from Fallout New Vegas. Thanks for giving me this weapon for the literally 0 combat left in the game. At least they gave you basically the same thing in the Lonesome Road DLC I guess.

[@Myomer104]

Technically, you can choose to fight General Oliver and his men, but... yeah.

[@crappleindusuries]

You know the knowledge of being able to cheese Horizon and get the Shield Weaver Armour with a little work straight after leaving the starting area gives me an idea for a new list. 7 End Game Items You Can Cheese Right Away. Another thing for this list would be being able to get the Sword of Aeons after finishing the start of Fable.

[@FelisImpurrator]

You can what now? How the hell do you get the SoA at the start of the game? And does that mean you can somehow also get Avo's Tear in the same save, and does it work in Anniversary?

[@crappleindusuries]

@@FelisImpurrator You need summon and Assassins Rush, go into the chamber in the guild where you fight Jack and summon a wasp into the stairs halfway up then assassins rush into it. If you're lucky you end up under the stairs and can just grab it. It doesn't work for Avos Tear but I did do this in Anniversary

[@FelisImpurrator]

@@crappleindusuries Oh, no, I mean, if you get to the end of the base game can you then just do the good path for the Tear, thus having both in your inventory? Seeing as it's just a glitch you can yoink the item through, that should work, right? Also, how do you get out? I should try this. I always wanted that thing, but I liked Theresa too much when I played as a kid.

[@crappleindusuries]

@@FelisImpurrator I can't remember if you can keep it after the fight with Jack. It's been a while since I've done it

[@antonyduhamel1166]

​​@@crappleindusuriesI don't give a flying f**k about keeping the SoA after Jack. Once you've killed Jack, you've completed 95% of the game, so having the busted-as-shit super sword is less useful at that point. I'd even look at it thematically: your character inherited a family heirloom but realized after using it to defeat the greatest evil in the land that the Sword (and the allure of its power) would always be a source for yet more evil and so, being the hero that you are, you cast it away such that it and its power might be sealed and prevented from spawning new evil.

[@mollywantshugs5944]

My favorite example is Super Dante in the original Devil May Cry. This option lets you have infinite devil trigger but you only get it after beating Dante Must Die (the absolute hardest difficulty in the first game). I *guess* you can use it for S ranking levels but you’ve already beaten the game at least 3 times when you get this.

[@GwenActually]

the word you mean is disagree

[@Brexcon.mp4]

The ultima weapon from kingdom hearts series could fit in. Especially with dream drop distance, by the time you get it there’s pretty much nothing left to use it on

[@willieoelkers5568]

I’d say there’s enough late game side content in 1 and 2 to still be worth it, especially the Final Mix versions.

[@Simply_resharkable]

Superbosses almost always make Ultima weapon, in the integer titles at least, very good I can't think of a single time Ultima's been useful outside of 1, 2 and 3 (remind at least)

[@LtBasil]

Depends on which ultima weapon you're talking about. You're right about the DDD version, but the ones from KHFM and KH2FM can still be used against superbosses.

[@Brexcon.mp4]

@@Simply_resharkable yeah, in the other ones it’s much less useful

[@alexcurtis6180]

The Iris sumomon from Golden Sun: The Lost Age. You have to make it halfway through the final dungeon before you can even access the area where you get this summon and fight a boss way more intense than the final boss of the game to obtain it. Thankfully, watching a rainbow goddess throw the final boss of the game into a supernova is a good time.

[@Gamer3427]

Not to mention you have to have every Djinn from both the first and second game to get it, and thus, have to have transferred your save file from the first game. If you missed one in the first game or don't know how to use the transfer system, it's literally unobtainable.

[@someguy1ification]

​@Gamer3427 iirc, some djinn from the first game can show up in the optional endgame dungeons (where you get Daedalus and the other super summons) if you missed some. I think one of each type can. But if you missed, say, two Mars djinn you're out of luck.

[@zantheros4927]

I digress when it comes to the Shield Weaver armor. It is beyond useful for the Frozen Wilds expansion, giving plenty of time to use it to its fullest. There's even a uniquely challenging mechanic in that DLC that specifically incorporates the armor.

[@jmacosta]

The Omnipotent Orb in Persona 3, makes you invulnerable to all attacks except Almighty, way too late in the game, and if you dare use it during your Elizabeth fight (the secret boss), she will laugh at you in Megidolaon dealing 10x the Almighty damage you can even take. It's like overkillx10 if you try to cheat your way out with the only item you'd feel safe using in that insane fight, and mind you, this fight is the most difficult fight in the entire Persona series (and afaik, the entire Megami Tensei).

[@chowsu944]

Atleast its not the demifiend fight

[@zachtwilightwindwaker596]

Theo and Margaret do this too but at least Margaret has less strict rules about how you fight her.

[@azureskyblade1106]

Persona 5 Strikers also has the Omnipotent Orb but in order to get it you need to beat The Reaper on Merciless which is essentially the hardest fight in the game on the highest difficulty no less. By that time You're either skilled enough not to take damage from most things anyway, or have personas set up to easily cheese everything.

[@Krishy-dz4ov]

Persona 5 Royal also has this. Lavenza literally took me 2 months of tries on and off in order to beat her. (I mainly got unlucky and messed up the pattern I planned out for each phase). At that point you probably have Izanagi-no-Okami Picaro, Raoul, or other busted Personas in your party, and you don’t really need an OP item like this. At least it transfers over to New Game Plus…

[@sswishbone]

this is nothing, Persona 5 Royal "letter from royalty". Complete the thieves den... To remove cost of compendium summoning, by the time you've grinded this you'll have more cash than you will ever need so the unlock is worthless

[@Jonathon_Hennessey]

In the game Assassin's Creed 2, the main protagonist Ezio Auditore can acquire both Altair's armor and sword by claiming the artifacts from the tombs of master assassins who came before him to unlock the gate. By the time you have unlocked Altair's armor and sword however, there's not much of the game left to play however.

[@fakjbf3129]

At least if you’ve got the Battle of Forli and the Bonfires of the Vanities DLCs (included in the Ezio edition) there’s a few hours of gameplay between when you can first unlock the armor and the end of the final mission.

[@dorianwiesner4477]

You can get the armor in the same sequence you get the pistol in, during the carneval. Thats still 3-5 sequences to enjoy it, if you have the expansions

[@antonyduhamel1166]

On a tangent, I really hated the 'ultimate' armour of AC: Revelations. I djstinctly hated that Ezio's base armour design made his robes GRAY instead of maintaining that classic, iconic Assassin White. This is easily fixable using in game dye, but if you unlock (and equip) the final armour, you're forced to use the GRAY robes and CANNOT dye them any other colour. Like, I get it devs: mufukka is old. That doesn't mean his clothes have to look like they were made before he was born! It's especially galling since ALL of the other assassins are still wearing WHITE, so it's not like the uniform changed between Brotherhood and Revelations. I was just glad that the final buyable armour has the same stats as the secret armour, so using that meant I was just as powerful as someone using the secret armour. I just had to continue repairing my armour through to the end of the game.

[@rickimaru915]

In Onimusha: Warlords the Bishamon Sword can only be found right before the final boss of the game and only with an item gained from completing the optional Dark Realm, a series of progressively more difficult arena battles. Ultimate Mode has you start the game with the Bishamon sword. However to unlock it you need to complete the difficult Oni Spirits challenge mode and to unlock that you need find all the collectible Fluorite in the main game. You’ve got to work for your rewards in Onimusha

[@NexeL_NKC]

I’d put forward the Ion Battery from Subnautica. Not technically an item, but a blueprint. You get it right near the end of the game when you could’ve used it to conserve so much more power. Sure, you need them to escape with the rocket, but you could’ve used them way back when your sea glide ran out of battery at the worst possible time.

[@cocodojo]

Such as when trying to escape every single leviathan in existence, or racing to the nearest oxygen source because some jerk leviathan destroyed your sea moth / cyclops / prawn suit.

[@shawntraub7249]

I think the devs realized what they did, because in Below Zero you get them a lot earlier.

[@JoeMH1995]

Would have quite liked the assault rifle from The Last of Us a lot earlier. Like when Ellie had to fight that big groomy cannibal armed with nothing but a little knife and whatever she could chuck at him.

[@Howitchewstofeel5gum]

Playing through Galaxy with Luigi is actually pretty dope because he breaks the game somewhat, due to his improved jump you can just straight-up skip a lot of stuff lol

[@malek0093]

Gwyn's Greatsword from Dark Souls 1 is one of the best greatswords in the game but you can only use it in New Game+, not to mention you'd have to progress halfway through the game in order to actually be able to exchange Gwyn's boss soul for it.

[@TheFallingFlamingo]

If you can bring it into NG+, it isn't really useless. You can literally beat the entire game with it. Then you look at the motorcycle in BoTW, that lets you ride around a mostly empty Hyrule, where you no longer have any real objectives outside.

[@greenhowie]

Literally same for Sunlight Spear. Except much worse if you want both.

[@Jatt2613]

At least HZD had a new game + mode that you could use the shield armor in.

[@Wordmama]

I immediately thought of Skyrim, where collecting 24 "strange gems" and a helm gets you the helm of Barenziah, which means you find handfuls of flawless gems in every container in the game. But, of course, this can't possibly happen until you're so far advanced in the game that there's nothing you want to buy and the gems are just annoying clutter. Feh!

[@lisah-p8474]

Right? At that point I'd rather just have the crown as a shiny new hat for Talos' sake. I'm the Guild Master and I say that I get a fancy hat at the end of this quest, thank you very much.

[@Benjamin1986980]

In assassin's Creed Black flag, you can get armor that's invulnerable to bullets, if you complete every Mayan stela puzzle, which means you have to go to pretty much every place in the game. Also, you forgot the fallout 2 manual. Even the item description describes how much more useful it would be if you had gotten it earlier

[@Zezlemet]

FF9 Exclaibur 2 Not only do you get near the tail end of the game you also need to get there under an insane time limit at a point when you can't turn back so you missed a lot of interesting things to get an item you can only use on a few bosses

[@Rordrik]

Also the Stray Beads from Okami. You cannot collect the final 100th stray bead until you have beaten the game's final boss and thus it is only available in new game plus. Of course unlimited Ink (mana), Solar Power (health) and a tenfold increase in damage is insane but come on! Let me use it!

[@michaelbarnes2126]

Damn idk if I got that. I love Okami lol

[@Rordrik]

@@michaelbarnes2126 It took a long time and dedication but it can be done. I think without trying I only found about 20 my first time.

[@Hailinel]

In Fire Emblem: Three Houses, there's an item called the Chalice of Beginnings. It's a reward for completing the Cindered Shadows DLC sidestory and made available to you as an accesory for any unit in the main story from that point on. Cindered Shadows is only seven chapters and not especially egregious in any way. And the reward is nice for the effort. Whoever equips it gains immunity to effective damage (i.e.: Weapons that deal bonus damage to flyers, cavalry, etc.) as well as the ability to counterattack regardless of range. In the Musou spin-off Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, however, the Chalice of Beginnings is the final reward you get after completing 450 achievements, which takes at least three full playthroughs covering all of the campaigns, each of which is dozens of hours long. By the time you unlock the Chalice of Beginnings, which has effects similar to what it does in Three Houses, mind you, you have very likely done everything possible that there is to do and is worth doing.

[@KCStill]

How about the Master Summon Materia from Final Fantasy 7? Not only do you have to acquire every summon materia, but you also have to max level each one. By then, not much can stand in your way.

[@kralik394]

Or beat Emerald WEAPON. You get a full set of master materia from the guy in Kalm for doing it.

[@someguy1ification]

whereas the reward for beating the Ruby weapon is... well, it's a Gold Chocobo. Which, while nothing to sneeze at... you probably already got one before fighting Ruby. Mime and KotR are dope.

[@gonxaa]

In the game ''GUN'', the reward for 100% completion is access to an armoured horse and a hand cannon, both very overpowered. But the only thing left to use them against are the poor sods you find in the frontier towns.

[@dorianwiesner4477]

Better make the story missions earlier then

[@xryurax]

It would be nice if these games had new game + modes where you can take advantage of these rewards.

[@320iSTWEdition]

Horizon does actually..... and Resident Evil as well.

[@nothankyou7986]

The universal pylon from Terraria and the finished gun from Enter the Gungeon both require you to completely fill out the respective bestiary, both of which are absolutely massive with a capital BIG.

[@mmobofficial]

The "undies" Spiderman suit is only unlocked after 100%ing the game. Sure it gives you the power to 1-hit everything, but damn it, I want to swing around practically naked

[@Thompas212]

Wait, it lets you one shot?

[@mmobofficial]

@@Thompas212 yeah lol, but the trade off is that you also get one shot

[@bellarmire]

In Persona 5 Royal, everyone's third tier personas are super cool and useful. It can be tricky unlocking them, especially if you haven't maxed out everyone's confidant links in the vanilla game (which isn't easy to do, especially for Haru), but you'll get a lot of use out of them. Except you can only unlock Violet's final persona on February 3rd, literally the last day with combat, by which point she's pretty much only useable against the final boss (and the New Game+ plus).

[@jayceofspades7195]

I don't know if you'd count this exactly, but what about Mewtwo in the original RBY games? By the time you have the chance to catch this powerful pokemon you already did all eight gyms and the Elite Four, so there's nothing much else to do. You COULD trade it in game for the end, but only if you had a friend nearby who caught it, two systems, and a link cable. None of which I had lol.

[@MrAuthor3DS]

It's at this point one realizes that Pokedex completion was the game's real goal all along. Even becoming Champion was merely one of the means to completing that goal.

[@AdamAddictL]

@@MrAuthor3DS

[@aapur]

I'd argue that the Shield-Weaver outfit for Zero Dawn made the Ultra-Hard NG+ Run a lot easier because of how it has shield gating. So it was not really too late, rather than priming you for NG+

[@merlinasmith4102]

I just saw the title and thought of Sly 2. You have to beat the game 100% to unlock the ability to use the Mega Jump cheat. At that point it is mostly used for exploring the areas on the map you couldn't really explore before if you want to.

[@barletproductions]

Stuff like this reminded me of when i was playing through the shadow of war and mordor games and you beat shadow of war and get a really cool ability to raise the dead while you also take enemies as your own, but its only at the end of the game. Which story wise makes sense but this why i wanted a new game plus for the main story because not only do you get those, you also get some sick looking weapons and armour THAT YOU CANT USE BUT NOW a time that when you get them theres nothing left to do

[@dereklarberg6357]

I would have included the mirror shield from LoZ the minish cap since you have to beat the final boss twice to get it and even then it’s only marginally useful

[@adelinevogt04]

The string of beads from Ōkami would fit very well. It’s easily the most powerful weapon in the game, but the absolute earliest you can get it is the beginning of a second play through. You can’t imagine how annoyed I was to collect the first 99 stray beads and have to look up the last one, only to find out I can only get it if I restart the game with a file that already has most of the collectibles anyways.

[@dorianwiesner4477]

The Master Cycle is actually essential for 100%ing the game. It makes Korok hunting far less tedious

[@JDC2890]

Good to know, I've yet to 100% BotW. I don't want to do TotK until I 100% BotW on normal and master mode.

[@jamesmarlowe7694]

Getting those last seeds is the only thing left at that point, to get the joke “reward”. Greatly annoyed me you cannot use it in the desert.

[@johnbuck4395]

Yeah, I quit the korok seed hunt after I maxed my inventory space; no sense wasting time on those leftovers

[@istrasci]

I'm not sure you know what "essential" means...

[@JoshuaEisenbart]

Honestly, many people, myself included, got the Master Cycle Zero before 100% the game. Because the only prerequisite to start the Champion's Ballad quest is to complete the 4 Divine Beasts, it is entirely possible for players to do it without having found every shrine or Korok Seed. I can't remember how many shrines I had finished before beating Maz Koshia, but I know I did it before beating Ganon, which I did when I had completed just 101 shrines. I also know that I still have found less than 600 of the Korok seeds in BotW. As such, the Master Cycle Zero actually WAS pretty useful to me, especially since it was more convenient for the "jump-fences-with-a-horse" korok puzzles than trekking to the nearest stable to get an ACTUAL horse.

[@sixthdragoness]

to be fair there's plenty of Horizon Zero Dawn that can be left until after you've got the Shield Weaver armor. Plus rocking up to the final stretch of the game covered in forcefields just feels powerful!

[@christinewebb8893]

I didn't know about using the J and L buttons to rewind YT vids until Ellen mentioned it! Not sure I would want to use them all the time, but thank you! :-D

[@artbk]

They are strinkingly useful. Also, when the video is paused, you can use the . keys to navigate frame by frame.

[@AmeenaWordweaver]

In the original Fable (the Lionhead RPG, not the Westwood point-and-click), pre-expansion, if you kept the Sword of Aeons at the end, then that was a case of getting the most uber weapon in the game off th final boss. Sure, you could continue playing after the end credits, but there wasn't much else that needed doing at that point (unless there were any Demon Doors you hadn't got through yet, or whatever). Once the Lost Chapters expansion came out then you had a bunch more quests and stuff in the expansion area, but the sword was also nerfed somewhat so it wasn't quite as good as it was in the pre-expansion version of the game. Another that comes to mind is from the 1987 dungeon-crawling RPG Dungeon Master (not a DnD game, despite the name). Some way through the game you get the Firestaff, but you can't do much with it until you find the Power Gem to put on the end of it - once you do, you can use it to cast one of several possible random spells, and it also gives the wielder two Wizard levels while they are holding it. The Power Gem is on the bottom-most level of the dungeon, by which point there are possibly only two significant enemies left to deal with - one is the dragon found on that same level and whom you therefore might already have dealt with in order to get to the Power Gem. The other is Lord Chaos, the final boss, on the level above, and whom you need the Firestaff to defeat. Sure, there are a bunch of other monsters in the area with him, but only two different types (and one type is stationary). You can't even backtrack to faff around in earlier levels of the dungeon (not that there's any reason to at this point), because the stairways above Lord Chaos's level are automatically sealed off once you leave the room in which you obtained the Power Gem (though in at least one of the fan-made clones of the game, you can through the gemmed Firestaff over the trigger point and it won't seal the upper doors). I feel like I have played other games which are examples of this, where the final boss drops the best weapon in the game or whatever, but can't bring any more to mind right now...

[@michaelbarnes2126]

I remember the Sword of Aeons it was pretty nice

[@stewartwatkins1443]

If I remember correctly, Luigi was basically New Game + in Super Mario Galaxy. Most of it is the same, but his Cosmic Comet races are much harder than Mario's. He's also slightly harder to control due to his lower traction and floatier jumps. And yes, I am a Luigi fan, thank you very much!

[@Icrashcars117]

The Raiden Suit in Metal Gear Phantom Pain. Not only do you have to S Rank every mission in the game, but you also have to wait 2 REAL LIFE HOURS for the suit to be crafted. When I unlocked it, I was so done with the game I never finished crafting it and I still have real life Phantom Pains from it D:

[@emilydefrances5981]

This is for “I’m neither rooting nor tooting” delivered in an exasperated British accent. This is how I will express all my American disappointment from now on. This cheeseburger is neither rooting nor tooting

[@DaemonPrimarch]

A bit surprised not to see the Sword of Aeons on here. In the original Fable it's literally the last thing you ever get, and in The Lost Chapters while you get to play a bit more of the game with it they also significantly reduced its damage. Still ends up being the highest DPS weapon in the game, but that's not quite as fun.

[@AwesomeWookiee]

The plasma gun and laser rifle in Deus Ex: Human Revolution. You get them both so late, and they're so easy to miss, that most people don't even know they're in the game. When you get the plasma rifle, the only thing left to shoot is innocent and practically immobile builders!

[@absolutexero9385]

The list will be immense considering how many games have post-game unlocks that are useful during the game itself

[@OhGlannyBoy]

One of my biggest gaming mysteries as a child on Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage, in which there was a mystery door that could only be unlocked by completing the game to 100%. Almost 20 years later on the Reignited Trilogy I unlocked the door only to find it was a permanent super flame power up, which you literally have no use for because you’ve completed EVERY CHALLENGE

[@arlinross1675]

As an opposite to this, a weapon you can enjoy early is the scorpion, a sticky grenade pistol in Mass Effect 3

[@BlaineKodos]

Especially if you have Cryo Ammo, which turns it into a hand portable Sub-Zero ice ball from Mortal Kombat. For extra fun, combine it with the Slam power for physics annihilation!

[@FelisImpurrator]

Good old Scorpion. Love that thing. Halo plasma nades in a convenient, fun gun.

[@jaredcrabb]

The opposite of that is the Falcon, a sniper grenade launcher you dont get until Cerberus' base.

[@antonyduhamel1166]

​@@FelisImpurratorHow the gun handled wasn't what made me like it. Having Garrus get jealous over a pistol is what made me love it!

[@skeletalmixer1019]

Ellen giving the seconds tip towards the end was just great

[@fluffymilkpudding]

oatchi's infinite rush from pikmin 4. requires 100% castaway rescues meaning you've likely 100%'d the game by the time you get it

[@dshadows2966]

The ability to pick up things with your rescue captain by comparison is lame and it's after you've likely done everything too. Infinite Rush is still useful for getting a 'platinum' on some things.

[@mdgeisto8953]

Examples of great unlocks are the Devil Car in Ridge Racer 1 and the Angel Car in Ridge Rager 2, where upon unlocking the Devil Car, you'd also unlock all the tracks in reverse mode, and then when you beat that (in RR2) you'd get the Angel Car and unlock all tracks in reverse mirrored mode, so you had quite a bit of game left to enjoy those unlocks 👍

[@SakuraAvalon]

The fun thing with unlocking Luigi, is rescuing Luigi as Luigi.

[@freeflyingwolf]

Something minor, but I always think about; Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess's horse whistle. By the time you get it, you can already transform into a fast running wolf AND teleport over the entire map.

[@scorchik11]

Well Luigi is harder to control and acts as a challenge where you collect every star again with a ‘slippery’ character

[@Orxenhorf]

4:21 - "Go for the head" with a rocket launcher used to be a strategy at the end of Half-Life. Early in the game's release you could defeat the final boss of the game with 3 or 4 well placed rockets while hiding safely behind a pillar.

[@spoo5122]

I'm surprised the Blade of the West from New Vegas wasn't on the list. It's one of the best melee weapons in the game and you only get it at the very end from Lanius if you side against the Legion

[@Deano3225]

Agreed. The first time I played through the battle at hoover dam I painstakingly picked up the valuable gear from my fallen foes. I didn't bother on subsequent playthroughs...

[@willieoelkers5568]

Better Fallout example was the game guide that maxed out all your stats in 2. Naturally, they give it to you at the very end of the game and the description even lampshades that you’re past the point where it does you any good.

[@Myomer104]

Blade of the *East*, actually. The Blade of the *West* was the copy made by the Marked Men in Lonesome Road, and you could potentially get one in the DLC's opening location if you were extremely lucky.

[@boonlincoln]

My joy in completing GTA Vice City 100% and unlocking a cool attack helicopter was soon dampened the realization that all I could do with it was menace harmless passers-by.

[@nonamegiven202]

I do have to throw out the Final Form you get in Kingdom hearts 2 here, like not only do you not get it until the last world of the game but you ALSO you have to fight RNG to get it to trigger in the first place and THEN you have to go and level up this form to unlock two of the game's three Form Boost passives and the Glide ability.

[@harlandmountain7998]

Not to mention that it's useless in the final battle.

[@Monkeyzforever]

Very useful for Sephiroth, data org, and lingering will though, so I don't think it's as bad as some on this list

[@nonamegiven202]

​@@Monkeyzforever to be fair only Sephiroth was in 2, the rest were added into the Final Mix version (along with Two Become One).

[@harlandmountain7998]

@@Monkeyzforever never could beat Sephiroth... Not even at level 100

[@Monkeyzforever]

@@harlandmountain7998 Glide is key, hence final form being useful if you level it up so you always have glide

[@thompse412]

Final Fantasy 12's Wyrmhero Blade. An awesome Dragon Quest reference that you can only get by completing the tedious fishing questline and defeating the two most powerful bosses in the game, one of which is the enemy with the most HP and highest level IN THE ENTIRETY OF FINAL FANTASY

[@Korishiva]

The Shield Weaver armor is pretty handy for a New game+ run on the hardest difficulty tho :)

[@qubertis3292]

I had no idea that the j key, l key, and arrow keys let you skip backwards and forwards! That's nice to know! Thanks Outside Xtra!!!

[@madebychannel44]

I always think about pokemon games when it comes to this. You've beaten the whole game? Here have the strongest pokemon and here's your masterball so you don't have to put in any effort to get it. Special shout out to Sword and Shield were they give you a legendary pokemon to make immediately getting the other legendary even easier.

[@Michael-bb1cw]

At least Sword and Shield actually let you use the Legendaries in the Battle Tower. That’s more than most other Pokémon games can say! And if you have the DLC, there’s also the Crown Tundra and Galarian Star Tournament.

[@ericstelzman5190]

In the original Final Fantasy XII, there is the Wyrmhero Blade. It has Auto-Bravery and Auto-Faith, high attack, and doesn't require LP to use. However, it requires beating two super-bosses, Omega Mark XII and Yiazmat, to get two of the badges to make it. In The Zodiac Age, you can farm it in Trial Mode.

[@DaSkittlzman]

Seeing Ellen cry just makes me wanna give her a hug and say "everything will be alright". Seriously though I love the videos you guys and gals make, few channels on KZbin can genuinly make me laugh as much as you guys!!! Keep up the good work ❤

[@lnt305]

Yo, careful with the parasocial relationships, mate 😕

[@dydlus]

Regarding the hint about skipping time on KZbin: The < and > keys can be used to skip individual frames of a video. Useful for when there's something in a video that appears only for one frame.

[@alwayswrite2011]

I saw the title of this video and immediately thought, "The Shield Weaver Armor from HZD better be in there." And it was. 😊

[@michaelbarnes2126]

Nah. You can get it before right before the end game which helps in the last fight and it’s needed for the DLC. Plus apparently there’s a glitch to get it way earlier than that so yeah nah lol

[@AdamusPrime24]

I did watch it all Ellen! Honest! XD Also, the original Ratchet & Clank has one of these weapons; R.Y.N.O. (Rip You a New One), the single most powerful, and most expensive weapon of the game. So expensive it needs about two playthroughs of the whole story to obtain the Bolts and a farming exploit that needs to be left farming overnight to obtain a substantial amount (which I did). So yeah, like the other entries here, most of the game is done by the time you're able to get it!

[@d_mickey]

Thanks Ellen

[@tribii1]

Can we talk about Hoenn's Psuedo-legends? Bagon is locked behind using waterfall in Meteor Falls which requiers the 8th (and last) badge to use, and Beldum is straight up given to you AFTER you've defeat the Champion. Aka, the final boss.

[@kalin6149]

Basically every "best weapon in the game" that can only be obtained by beating the toughest final optional superboss.... Thanks i guess?

[@journeyr8903]

This reminds me of A Short Hike, where if you've managed to catch every type of normal and rare fish there is to catch in the game and deliver it to the sea captain that wants them, he gives you... A new, fancier fishing rod that makes it easier to catch rare fish. Rare fish that you have no use for now, seeing as you've already caught them all. Also, the first time you give him a unique fish, he will pay you, but every fish of that type after will only give you bait - to make it easier to catch more fish. Which means there is truly absolutely no use for the fancy fishing rod, unless you plan on filling your entire inventory with fish bait for some reason.

[@Howitchewstofeel5gum]

You just need to have done the four divine beasts in order to start the DLC, though, so you could theoretically still have a lot of other stuff to complete when you get the motorcycle.

[@sirennightshade4977]

Also: the Dragon Rend shout in Skyrim. Great, now that you've probably done literally everything else and became a master dragon slayer, NOW you get the shout that knocks dragons to the ground for easier slaying.

[@lisah-p8474]

At that point I'd just use the Bend Will shout that let me ride the dragons around, then shoo them away like stray cats when I was done. Much like our buddy Partysnax, killing had really lost its thrill for me.

[@tomodaphne]

This one is from one of Nitro Rad's videos. In Blinx the Time Sweeper, Blinx's main weapon is the sweeper, a powerful vacuum that can suck up objects from your surroundings and spit them out at your enemies. You have a basic starting sweeper, but you unlock other ones that have abilities such as sucking up heavy objects, sucking up sand, and spitting out fire or ice. However, this game doesn't have an equip menu, so every time you want to change sweepers, you have to buy it even if it's one you've already bought before. The only way to get multiple abilities at once is through a sweeper with every ability that you get after 100%ing the game. "Why would you give me something to beat the game when I've already beaten the game?" Also, the Balan costume from Balan Wonderworld, which lets you glide across the levels instead of playing them. You can only get it by breeding the King Tim, which is part of the useless sidequest on the Isle of Tims.

[@JDC2890]

The Gutsy Bat in Earthbound, available only as a rare 1/128 drop from a rare enemy in the final dungeon beyond the point of no return. It's a fantastic weapon for Ness, even better than the other bat in the dungeon that is in a treasure chest (which has higher attack, but Ness's offense is likely to be so high you'll hit the 255 cap anyway. Why is it fantastic? Massive increase to the Guts stat, which means more crits and more chance of surviving fatal blows. The problem is, while it might be slightly useful during the final boss fight, for a lot of the final boss fight, something completely different which I won't spoil is required to finish it.

[@chunkywhippet9503]

There was a way to get The Shield Weaver armour early, although it took a lot of glitches and trickery. But it made the game so much more fun!

[@thajocoth]

Luigi is a new game plus hard mode. You replay the whole game as Luigi, re-collecting all 120 stars with slippery shoes and a higher jump height than you're used to. Doing so unlocks the 121st star for both your Mario & Luigi files. Also, Luigi has brand new dialog throughout the game, like in the levels where Luigi has a power star and you need to find him in that level to obtain it. Saving Luigi as Luigi gets completely different dialog, like Luigi suggesting that in an infinite universe with infinite possibilities there must be somebody that looks, dresses, sounds, and is named identically to him, so it's not weird at all actually to meet what seems to be a copy of himself. Unlocking Luigi is Super Mario Galaxy's halfway point.

[@The_Jester_Kissed_Fire]

The utter tease that is legate Lanius sword of the east and helmet. The acquisition was so late that they could have grafted them onto his skin.

[@maskedlunatic7577]

This reminds me of the Bishamon sword in Onimusha Warlords... all the way through the demon realm gauntlet, just to only get the sword basically right before the final boss. Or you jump through hoops by finding all 20 fluorite, finish the game, then complete the unlocked minigame so you can start with the bishamon sword by starting a new game in ultimate mode. At which point you've done everything anyways.

[@SpookyEchos]

This is why I adore games that have the New Game+ feature that allow you to replay the game on harder difficulty with a previous saves loot. Made HZD a look much more fun the second time through!

[@Gamer3427]

The final summon in Golden Sun 2. You can only get it by collecting every Djinn across both the first and second games, transferring your save from the first game, then completing a secret bonus area and fighting the hardest boss in the game at the end of it. Once you do, you obtain a summon that is extremely overpowered, but basically the only thing you could use it on at that point is the final boss of the game who is infinitely easier than several of the bonus ones you've faced prior.