The Extraordinary and the Mundane

What purpose does the less interesting gear in an RPG serve?

After writing about Elden Ring a few times, I started to think about how it’s hard for me to find a reason to use the “regular” equipment in the game. Sure the Grossmesser or the Zweihander might have great damage and stat scaling, but am I really going to use them over the Wing of Astel, which can shoot energy waves on heavy attacks, or the Ruins Greatsword, whose unique skill sends out a gravity wave that makes rock spikes shoot up out of the ground? The ashes of war help make the more basic weapons a little more appealing (i.e. the Clayman Harpoon with Ice Spear, which is one of my go-to pieces of equipment on an intelligence run due to its innate magic damage), but most of the time the lack of additional unique mechanics and characteristics just makes me less likely to use these weapons— not to mention they’re usually less visually interesting than their unique counterparts. So the question becomes, what purpose do they serve, and why do some games feel their presence is necessary?

There are only 26 main hand weapons in Bloodborne (15 if you don’t have the DLC), but essentially every weapon (and their transformed state, which makes nearly each weapon two weapons in one) is entirely unique, and I tried them all across my different playthroughs. In Dark Souls 3 there are over 200 different weapons, but most of them are fairly mundane, with only a handful having unique abilities or movesets, and those are usually the ones I centered my character around— such as Friede's Great Scythe with its unique dual wielding moveset which compliments a Dexterity/Intelligence run. Elden Ring seems to sit in the middle, with a large number of unique and mundane weapons, so I again mostly built my characters around the unique gear I found, but usually there were a few exceptional mundane weapons that shined on certain builds, like the Guardian’s Swordspear on the pure dexterity build, or the Giant-Crusher on the pure strength build.

I think I also need to define “unique” (in relation to RPG equipment) before I continue. I only consider a piece of equipment “unique” if it checks at least one of two boxes. First: It has to look unique. This means either an entirely unique model, or at the very least a texture that makes it look very different from similar pieces of equipment. Second: it has to have some unique gameplay attribute, that can only be accessed by using it over another piece of equipment in the same category. Ideally this doesn’t just mean better stats, it should actually function differently. I’ll use Fallout 3 and New Vegas as an example. Fallout 3 has, effectively, only 2 unique weapons¹ in the base game: the Alien Blaster/Firelance (very high damage, 100% critical chance, unique and limited ammo) and Lincoln’s Repeater (only rifle that uses .44 magnum rounds). All the other weapons that have unique names, that are usually found in set locations or from quest rewards, aren’t actually “unique” at all. They use the same models as their base versions, and typically only differ in the minutia of their stats, such as damage or magazine size. Fallout: New Vegas on the other hand has truly unique weapons, with each unique variant of the game’s base weapons having a unique appearance and usually a unique element beyond higher damage. This means that if you’re building a certain type of character, New Vegas has a clear advantage in terms of equipment variety and a player’s ability to engage in effective character expression.

Mundane equipment isn’t without purpose however, as they can effectively serve to fill the gaps in a player’s equipment. As important as player expression is, there are still times where utility becomes more important. Enemies and bosses that have certain weaknesses (like the crystal and stone enemies in Elden Ring, with their extreme weakness to “blunt” physical damage) or certain resistances/immunities, may necessitate the player switches the gear they’re using from their preferred equipment. During these moments, the mundane, but effective, equipment becomes important, allowing the player to adapt and continue through the game. Even certain systems like status effects or elemental damage types can make use of secondary pieces of gear that serves a more auxiliary purpose, like providing immunity to poison or dealing a harder to find damage type.

Often, RPGs also make sure that mundane equipment can mix-and-match with the more unique equipment, allowing for further development of player gear variety. One example is armor systems like those found in Dark Souls/Elden Ring or the Elder Scrolls games, allowing players to mix and match armors and clothing freely, without restrictions based on armor type or class. This allows some visual customization of the player character, while still meaningfully utilizing a stat system— such as using a basic hood from a mage’s armor set to compliment the rest of a unique heavier armor set while playing a spellsword styled character. Another example found in the Souls games is Elden Ring’s dual wielding/power stance movesets, specifically the fact that only the weapon in the right hand determines the weapon skill used, leaving the other hand open for any other weapon in the same weapon category. Since there’s only one copy of each unique weapon in Elden Ring (outside of subsequent new game plus playthroughs), players will have to use another weapon for the offhand if they plan to dual wield while using a unique weapon. Similarly, it’s common in RPGs with leveled gear to use mundane equipment as a stop-gap once the more unique equipment becomes under leveled, but the concept of leveled gear is a dubious one to begin with, so it’s debatable whether this is an effective system (compared say, to gear upgrade systems, where the available upgrade materials scale with game progression).

Something that bears discussion is the various customization and enchantment systems found in certain RPGs, which can allow players to modify mundane equipment to bring it into a similar level of the more powerful unique “pre-enchanted” gear. As I’ve mentioned in previous articles, gear customization in RPGs can be a two-edged sword. If done well, like the Ashes of War system in Elden Ring (as I’ve mentioned in previous articles) or gear enchantments in the Elden Scrolls games, it can elevate mundane items into specific niches or even allow a weapon to thrive on certain builds in a way none of the unique gear does. On the other hand, if the customization is limited only to stats upgrades or utilizes a system that undermines how the entire weapon system works (such as Fallout 4’s, where any “unique” variant of a mundane weapon is identical to said mundane version when it is found with the same legendary effect and equipped with the same weapon parts), it can actually hurt the game’s overall gear system and limit the number of effective gear choices that fit with different character builds.

An interesting concept for certain kinds of mundane equipment is that of “materials”, such as the different weapon and armor materials found in the Elder Scrolls games. In these equipment systems, each category of weapon and armor has different kinds of equipment “material” that scale in effectiveness as the game progresses, and require different items for upgrading. For example, the light armor and swords found at the beginning of a playthrough would be leather armor and iron swords, which are of limited effectiveness, but by the end of the game the player can find Glass armor and Daedric swords that are far more effective. This introduces an interesting relationship between aesthetic design and gear effectiveness. Skyrim in particular offers the interesting option of smithing specialization, where the player can become more effective in upgrading (along with the ability to make gear of) a certain kind of material, which then allows a player to upgrade, for example, a leather helmet until it offers more protection than a base version of a Glass helmet. And while the highest tier armors will always be more effective overall, it does offer an interesting dynamic in which a player can (based on their preference of material) become better suited to using materials that are from a lower tier of gear. I find the idea that the player’s character can become knowledgeable enough about certain kinds of weapons and armor, that they’re better suited to using them rather than other higher tier materials that are available. This creates a great gameplay dynamic that interplays with roleplaying to encourage players to build gear preferences outside of typical game progression.

“Player-modified” gear in RPGs is, overall, a great system to encourage gear diversity and utilization of mundane gear, and is something that I think the Elder Scrolls games in particular excel at. I’ve already mentioned the smithing specialization and upgrading within Skyrim, but the gear enchantments (even as simplistic as they are in Skyrim compared to previous Elder Scrolls titles) and even the ability to name the gear pieces makes the role-playing in each given playthrough feel particularly rewarding. It’s one of those aspects of the Elder Scrolls series that makes it have that long lasting appeal, even as I feel Bethesda continues to sand down and simplify the more interesting aesthetic and mechanical elements of the franchise with each new release. There’s just something incredibly satisfying of upgrading and enchanting your own sword with a unique name and enchantment, which helps you be willing to choose gear outside of the more unique and powerful equipment that you would otherwise depend on.

Regardless of whether or not a game finds it necessary to have “regular” equipment, or even utilize it well, ruminating on this topic has made me realize how important “unique” gear pieces are in RPGs. There are a lot of ways gameplay fatigue can set in as the hours drag on in certain games, and having a piece of gear that suddenly changes your playstyle is great way to break up the occasional monotony that sets in as players gravitate towards to a certain kind of build. Whether the game has 26 different weapons or over 200, there needs to be those game changer weapons that can be discovered as the player progresses to liven up the combat. In the end, there shouldn’t be any truly mundane gear pieces in a good RPG, only gear that has the potential to utilize interesting gameplay mechanics and further build possibilities.

1. Besides the player crafted weapons, which are unique, but aren’t discovered by the player in the world.