Prize Pod

The Prize Pod is an Unversed that is found in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep. Although it is a variant of the Red Hot Chili, Blue Sea Salt, and Yellow Mustard Unversed, it is passive in nature, and is similar to the Mushroom Heartless from earlier games. Prize Pods appear in most worlds, and have conditions that must be met for them to appear, ranging from defeating the enemies in an area to simple random chance. Each time a Prize Pod is damaged, it will drop one of a specific set of Ingredients, depending on which world it is found in, and if not slain in a set amount of time, it will flee. Once a world's set of Prize Pods flee or are slain, they will not reappear until the character has left the world and returned.

Design
A Prize Pod is a small Unversed that resembles a pot or jar. Its lower half is dark purple and decorated by several small, violet diamonds. Its upper half is violet. Its lid is black and sports two small wings that it uses to fly. Its red eyes are set in a happy expression.

In Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix, the Prize Pod receives a palette swap which gives it a dark-green body with a black base decorated with gold diamonds and gold highlights. Its top is now gold.

The Prize Pod's behavior and tendency to relinquish rare treasures are reminiscent of and likely based of the Bulky Vendor and Prize Bug.

Strategy
Prize Pods appear in exactly one location in nearly every world (usually a different location per character) and in certain matches in the Mirage Arena. They usually appear in groups of four, and will flee after thirty seconds without ever attacking. If they do not appear when the player character fulfills their appearance conditions, then the player can simply leave the room and try again, but once they appear in a world they will not reappear until the player leaves to the Lanes Between and then comes back. For every hit, they will drop an ingredient for making ice cream, and fighting Prize Pods is the only way to acquire these ingredients. Prize Pods drop two to three specific ingredients per character per world, so in order to get all the ingredients the player must defeat each set of Prize Pods in every world they inhabit.

To effectively and easily yield the most amount of ingredients from Prize Pods, it is recommended to have a repeating deck of a Magnet-type spell and then two Thunder-type spells, as well as a projectile-type Shotlock. Upon their appearance, use Magnega and then the following Thundagas. This will activate the Thunderbolt Command Style, nulling Magnega, so it should be recast. At this point step back and use a Shotlock to its maximum number of lock-ons. Once they have either been defeated or have fled, go in and collect the dropped ingredients. Another combo only Aqua can use would be to use a Magnet-type spell while on the ground, then following up with Raging Storm for multiple hits while the Magnet-type spell runs its course. Ventus can also use a combo of a Magnet-type spell and then follow up with either Faith or Salvation until the Magnet-Type spell finishes. Ventus and Aqua can also make use of Time Splicer. Another effective tactic for Terra, Ventus, and Aqua, is to use Transcendence, although the short start-up time may give the Prize Pods enough time to move out of the radius of Transcendence; an alternative is Mega Flare, which has a shorter start-up time.