Resource management is an important part of a lot of video games and tends to manifest in different ways from dealing with things like currencies and economies in strategy games down to even more basic things like your health, which tracks how much of a beating you can take.
More fantastic settings have mana to limit how many spells you can cast, if the resource isn’t just the spells themselves. But some games have some truly strange resources and while they are exchanged in the usual ways – spent to buy weapons or items, or used to give you life or magic power, WHAT they are can get pretty bizarre.
7 Halos (Bayonetta Series)
The main currency in the Bayonetta series is Halos, used for dealings within the Inferno – more specifically Rodin, the demonic blacksmith. Whether she’s trading around what amounts to angel scalps or a physical manifestation of the angel’s essence, it would be even more concerning if the angels hadn’t shown themselves to be as monstrous as the demons.
Also, what does Rodin do with them anyways? Does he trade them in Inferno for demon parts to craft weapons with? Does he incorporate them into his weapons designs and enhancements? It’s probably a trade secret.
6 Zombies (Deadcraft)
In the post-apocalyptic world of Deadcraft, zombies roam the land, a constant threat to the remnants of humanity. However, to our protagonist Reid, they’re also a valuable resource.
Parts from slain zombies are used as ingredients for consumables and crafting and even more inexplicably, if you’re short on undead, you can grow your own! That’s right, like a crop in a farm, you can grow your own zeds and use ‘em like produce, chopping them up for parts or deploying them as your own personal zombie army.
5 Souls (FromSoftware Games)
Traditionally, souls are seen as the essence of living beings, immaterial and fleeting when life ends. In most FromSoftware games, not only do they get left behind, but you can pick them up. Use them to give yourself more power, buy some sweet weapon upgrades or even exchange them for goods and services.
Stranger yet, you can farm them. Are you killing an endless army and harvesting their souls? The same enemies over and over again? If so, then do they have multiple souls?
The Souls games outright call them souls, while Bloodborne calls them Blood Echoes and describes them as the lingering essence of a being. So you know, souls, or at least something like it.
4 Crystallized Demon…Stuff (Devil May Cry series)
Stylish action game Devil May Cry has had us slaying demons and looking good doing it for almost 20 years across six games and in that time, our demonic killing sprees have always been fueled by Orbs, of which red is the most common.
What you might not know is that the most common of these Orbs tend to be made of various crystallized demon remains. More specifically: the red ones which are used for currency are blood, green which heal you are demon fluids (whatever that means), and white orbs are the tears and spirits of demons, which is admittedly less gross than it could be.
It makes a strange kind of sense, since not only is Dante part demonic, but his weapons tend to be demons which have been subjugated into weapon form, so they’re likely taking the power of slain demons into themselves. Understandable, if gruesome.
Speaking of gruesome, Metal Gear Rising had you taking your opponent’s life and energy from them in a very literal way.
Your sword is designed to sap the electrolytes from your opponents as you slash them up, adding to your fuel gauge so that you can use your slow-mo Blade Mode, something you’ll need for optimal results. If you want to heal, then you’ll need a much more concentrated source of the stuff, which you get by cutting your foes in half and ripping out their Electrolyte-rich cyborg spines through the Zandatsu technique. Quicker than rations, if a lot more gory.
2 Fans (Brutal Legend)
Since everything in Brutal Legend revolves around Heavy Metal culture, it makes sense that the primary resource in the game’s Stage Battles are none other than the Fans. By scaring off the Fan Leeches that prey on them, you can play an epic solo which builds your faction’s merch booth on top of the geysers they come out of.
Through their power, you can build units, upgrade your stage, and even come back from the dead. Truly these subterranean metalheads are the lifeblood of any war effort.
1 Pink F (Evil Dead: The Game)
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Perhaps the wildest alcohol-based buff in all of gaming, this cocktail is the main resource that Survivors crave to raise their stats and fight off the Evil and as such is vital for their survival.
A classic in Elk Grove, Michigan, the setting of Ash vs. The Evil Dead, this tasty and – we cannot stress this enough, illegal concoction can be used to increase your strength and resistance to damage, something that can be attributed to the numbing effects of the alcohol and drugs. It makes a strange kind of sense. This combination will likely kill you outside the realm of fiction, being a weapons grade poisonous combo. Remember kids: don’t do drugs.
