10 WORTHLESS Video Game Items That Become USEFUL

Rock-Hard Food “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild” (2017) & “Tears of the Kingdom” (2023)

“Breath of the Wild” introduced cooking to the “Zelda” series, allowing Link to make meals and elixirs that could refill his health and stamina, and give status boosts depending on the ingredients. However, if you happened to use wood or ore in a recipe, for whatever reason, you’d end up with rock-hard food, which only ever heals ¼ of a heart and has no extra benefits. This meal seems pretty useless in the base game. However, when attempting the Trial of the Sword in its DLC, which only starts Link with his Sheikah slate and forces you to gather resources as you go, rock-hard food can actually be useful. You can cook up a bunch of wood at each rest floor, amass a ton of these meals, and use them in a pinch or when you don’t want to waste a better meal. Furthermore, in “Tears of the Kingdom” you could find Moza, an NPC who could turn Link’s rock-hard food into Monster Stew, which could heal for much more.

Blade of Woe “The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion” (2006)

The first time you kill an innocent person in “Oblivion,” you’ll be visited by Lucien, a member of the Dark Brotherhood. He’ll issue a test for you to join them, and give you a dagger called the Blade of Woe. This seems like a pretty weak weapon in comparison to what you’ll probably already have, and you’ll find no real reason to use it. Since it’s a quest item, you can’t get rid of it without killing Lucien; that is, if you don’t want to join a morally grey assassin guild. However, after following this questline to its end, you’ll eventually meet the Night Mother, who can improve this dagger by enchanting it. It then becomes far more powerful, and this is especially the case if you’re putting points into an assassin build. Level up the necessary skills high enough, and the Blade of Woe is a force to be reckoned with.

Junk “Parasite Eve” (1998)

Well, with a name like that, of course this seems pretty worthless. In the underrated horror RPG, “Parasite Eve,” you can collect junk as you play. It’s typically dropped by specific enemies. And on a first playthrough, players were probably confused as to why it was there. Well, if you collect enough of it and give it to Wayne, the NPC who mods your weapons, he’ll somehow build it into one of several strongest guns in the game, which includes a high-power rifle and a rocket launcher. It takes 300 pieces of junk to get the option, which has led to some players in the know farming those specific enemies during their replays. This takes the phrase ‘One man’s trash is another man’s treasure’ to a whole new level.

Hilt of Skofnung “God of War Ragnarök” (2022)

The case of this relic in “God of War Ragnarök” is pretty straightforward, though certainly not easy to accomplish. During the ninth story quest, following Kratos and Freya in Midgard, you’ll come across a gravestone that gives you the Hilt of Skofnung. It’s entirely unusable at this point, unless you count interacting with multiple other gravestones scattered throughout the realm as a use. This is how the game introduces Berserkers, a series of tough boss fights that essentially take the rolls of Valkyries from the 2018 game. There are nine fights to make it through, twelve Berserkers in total, before you can challenge their King, Hrolf Kraki. Only by defeating him, undeniably one of the game’s most difficult tasks, will the Hilt be useful. It can summon a group of spectral swords to rip through your enemies, though, making it one of the strongest relics in the game.

Broom “Assassin’s Creed II” (2009)

To be fair, you don’t actually have to do anything to make this item useful; it is already. It’s just that most of us would never expect it to be. In several “Assassin’s Creed” games, you can use regular items like fishing poles and rakes as improvised weapons. By far the silliest of these is the broom, first seen in “Assassin’s Creed II.” You can knock over civilians who are sweeping, steal their broom, and use it to bash anyone over the head. The funny thing is, the broom has the same damage output as a mace, so it can actually deal quite a bit of damage. You can even use it to cut an enemy’s throat, which is clearly hilarious. To a trained assassin, anything can be a weapon, even a broom.

Residual Goop “No Man’s Sky” (2016)

With its vast array of planets and biomes, there are a lot of resources to collect in “No Man’s Sky.” Residual Goop is one of the most common and seemingly one of the most useless. However, through several steps using a Refiner, it can lead to one of the most useful resources in the game. Residual Goop can be refined into Viscous Fluids, which can be refined into a Living Slime, which can be refined once again into a Runaway Mould. All of these items are classified as junk in your inventory. But place five Runaway Moulds into the Refiner, and you get a Nanite Cluster. This is a rare resource with a ton of uses, including upgrading your ships, tools, and pet companions, as well as buying new blueprints and helpful information from travellers.

Random Household Items “The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim” (2011)

Let’s go back to the world of “The Elder Scrolls.” Just like the other entries, you’ll want to loot as often as you can in “Skyrim.” Some items will appear unworthy of picking up, even if they don’t weigh much. However, at the Atronach Forge underneath the College of Winterhold, you can turn those worthless items into something far greater. Recipes will call for a few other resources. But brooms can become staffs, rolls of paper become scrolls, and ruined books become tomes, all of which can be used to summon elemental creatures to fight on your behalf. Even an empty wine bottle can become a Conjurer’s Elixir, which increases the time of your conjuration spells.

Wooden Sword “Ninja Gaiden” (2004)

In a bloody quest for vengeance, in a game as hard as “Ninja Gaiden,” you’re probably correct in assuming it isn’t worth unlocking a simple wooden sword. Its damage output is understandably incredibly low. And it seems almost like a joke weapon put in by the devs to simply mess with you or make a hard game even harder for yourself. However, the Wooden Sword can be upgraded seven times, the final form of which is called Unlabored Flawlessness. This weapon’s damage output is extremely high, though it also comes with a unique ability no other weapon has. Once Ryu’s health drops to a quarter of its total, it deals 150% increased damage. At that point, it’s the strongest weapon in the game.

Rusted Weapons “Dragon’s Dogma” (2012)

One would expect things would only go up after getting rusted weapons, which is what you start with in “Dragon’s Dogma.” Of course, who would want to keep using rusty garbage when there are so many more powerful weapons to earn on your adventure? Even if you get rid of these, you’d do well to pick up others you find while exploring, because they can be upgraded to a point of being quite deadly. If you enhance a rusted weapon to two stars, it can poison an enemy on a hit, which deals damage over time. Enhance it to three stars, and it can inflict torpor, a status effect that slows their movement and attack speed by half. Every further enhancement makes the chance of inflicting those nasty debilitations more likely. So, you can make every combat encounter easier, then switch to more powerful weapons to take advantage.

Paddle Ball “Fallout 4” (2015)

Added in the Nuka-World DLC, this toy is literally just that. You can try to use it in combat, but all you’ll do is bounce a stringed ball in the enemy’s face to deal a single point of damage. Obviously, not worth it. However, if you have the proper materials, you can modify it at a workbench for more power, even adding elemental damage like fire. But to get the most out of your Paddle Ball, you need to track down the Project Cobalt schematics. These unlock the recipe for Weaponized Nuka-Cola ammo, as well as three new upgrades for your Paddle Ball that let it launch nuclear explosions into enemy forces. The size of the explosion varies between the three upgrades. Regardless, once a child’s play thing, the Paddle Ball becomes a weapon of detrimental damage.

 Know of any other seemingly useless items that can help a player out? Share them with us in the comments!