Vitapod
From SpiralKnights
The Vitapod is a type of consumable. They can increase the maximum available health of the player in a single continuous clockworks expedition.
Acquisition
Vitapods are most commonly acquired as random drops from Treasure Boxes, Heart Boxes, and enemies. Most lobby and subtown vendors will have vitapods for sale, though it is prudent to not purchase these temporary items, as vitapods are not rare drops. Randomly found vitapods are considered loot, as such, other players are not able to see pods that drop for the player. Sometimes vitapods can take a while to show up, if at all. This is the nature of randomness.
When the player walks over a superior vitapod, it will replace the current one and add more empty health pips on top of what's already been obtained. It won't completely 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 expedition. Thus a vitapod can technically last a full arcade run. Vitapods are not retained if the player returns to Haven or leaves the expedition. Vitapods are similar to pickups in this way.
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 if the pod is picked up. Because the health bars added by a vitapod are empty, players will need to find hearts to fill the additional bars. Vitapods acquired in the first combat floor of the 
Event Mission: Shroud of the Apocrea will fill the health bar in addition to increasing capacity.
The health capacity of a vitapod is always evenly divisible by the tier it is found in.
Vitapods of the same capacity or lower than any the player has picked up seem to not drop. Vitapods can continue to drop if the player does not have a vitapod of their value or greater. For example, if a player has a 12 vitapod, vitapods valued 12 or lower will not drop for that player. If the player does not have a vitapod or has a vitapod of relatively low value, then vitapods of higher value can continue to be found, even sometimes simultaneously. Under these circumstances it is possible to see two 12 vitas and a 9 vita on the ground at the same time, and so on.
: This means it's probably a good idea to immediately pick up a vitapod and reduce drop pool dilution when in a treasure floor, even if the effect is statistically insignificant. Conversely, if the player has full health near the end of a mission, and wishes to manipulate the prize wheel, then picking up a vitapod is not a good idea. This is because doing so will dilute the prize wheel with hearts, as 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" User Forums 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. These only drop in Shadow lairs.
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 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
Mission: The Ancient Generator.
Examples of vitapods in the overworld as drops.
Vitapods can be found in hidden places such as 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:
An acquired vitapod will show up here in the HUD.
Animation:
A vitapod increases the number of pips in this area of the HUD. Notice that it seems to lower the health %.
