Vitapod
From SpiralKnights
(Simply walk over a vitapod to obtain it).
Vitapods are a type of consumable. They can increase the maximum available health of the player in a single continuous mission.
Notes
They appear as a white capsule with a red and white heart icon on top. Each vitapod has a red number on its side indicating the amount of health pips the player will gain. Because the health bars added by a vitapod are empty, players will need to find hearts to fill the additional bars.
Vitapods can drop from Treasure Boxes, Heart Boxes, and enemies. Rarely, they can be found alone in hidden areas (see gallery). Most lobby and subtown Vendors will have vitapods for sale. Like materials and other drops, most vitapods only show up to one player if they drop, so don't feel guilty grabbing one! Your squadmates won't be able to see the ones you see, and they'll probably get lucky on their own - vitapods, on average, are not a rare drop, though sometimes they do take a while to show up, if at all. This is the nature of random loot. When the player runs over a superior vitapod, it will replace the current one, adding more empty health pips on top of what's already obtained (it won't totally replace the player's health with that number of empty pips, it will simply increase pip capacity). Vitapods will stay on the player until replaced by a better one or the player leaves the mission - so a vitapod can technically last a full arcade run. Vitapods are not retained if the player returns to town, or leaves a mission at all - they are like pickups (such as vials) in this sense.
The value (capacity, size, etc.) of a vitapod is always evenly divisible by the tier it is found in.
Vitapods (of the same capacity or lower that the player has picked up) seem to not drop from anywhere if the player has a vitapod picked up (making it a good idea to immediately pick up vitapods and reduce drop pool dilution when in a treasure room) - data on this is still pending. Conversely, if the player has full health near the end of a mission, and wishes to manipulate prize wheel prizes, then picking up a vitapod is not a good idea, as doing so will dilute the elevator prize pool with hearts (since vitapods give empty pips).
History
The mechanics of vitapods have been changed a few times -regarding how to obtain them, their capacity, and even how to get rid of them.
- release 2010-11-22 - new vitapods introduced. They show up in the HUD's health bar area.
- release 2010-11-23 - vitapods seamlessly upgrade max health when picked up and can be dropped to reduce health as desired.
- release 2011-04-11 - vitapods added to subtown vendor lists for purchase with crowns.
- release 2013-04-03 - vitapods can no longer be dragged and dropped out of the HUD, so players cannot reduce their own health.
This change was met with an unusually high amount of player feedback on the forums due to the loss of the ability to easily gain "100%" health at the end of a mission by dropping a vitapod, thus eliminating the heart prize from the prize wheel. It also eliminated the ability for a squadmate to give a vitapod to a needier player.
- release 2013-08-21 - increased vitapod drop rate.
Although vitapods with larger capacity have been available in earlier versions of the game, the strongest vitapod currently available gives 21 more health (only dropped in a Shadow lair).
For a short time after the April 2013 update, vitapods only dropped from boxes. Before and after this short period, vitapods also drop from defeated enemies.
Gallery
This friendly advice lets new players know what vitapods are all about. This special vitapod spawner happens to also fill the player's health pips. Harder areas will not grant such gifts. This one is found in the 1-2 Rank Mission The Ancient Generator.
Examples of various vitapods in the overworld as drops.
Vitapods can be found in hidden places like this. While a vitapod is highly likely to be found in these cases, combat areas that have stand-alone vitapods are very rare. This one is in the Ritual Road II version of Dark City. It seems only one party member can pick up a stand-alone vitapod, so don't be greedy!
General icon for the vitapod.
Animation:
If you've picked up a vitapod, it will show up here in the HUD.
Animation:
If you've picked up a vitapod, it will increase the number of pips in this area of the HUD. Notice that it seems to "lower" your health %.
