You don't have a backpack. What you have there is an invisible leatherTARDIS. —Gimli,DM of the Rings

Some characters, particularly video game characters inFirst-Person Shooters andAdventure Games, have a seemingly superhuman ability to carry incredible amounts of stuff at one time, usually an array of weapons along with a couple hundred pounds of ammunition for each one. It doesn't limit their ability to run and jump and crawl through small spaces at all.

In games, what's more, when you see them duringcutscenes in first-person games and third-person games, you can't see where they've stowed these things, even when they're wearing clothes that are more or less form-fitting. It seems they've put them away in thesame realm whereHyperspace Mallets are kept.

In practice, aHyperspace Arsenal serves to reduce the more annoying aspects of inventory management, removing the need to constantly shuffle stuff in and out of your backpack. Some games may choose to restrict inventory for balance reasons: It might upset the difficulty curve if the protagonist can carry around an infinite amount of healing items. This can be more realistic as inHalo's rule of no more than two weapons at once or still kind of exaggerated, as in manyAdventure Games' "you can only carry twelve items"-type ruling. The result, more often than not, is the more annoying variety ofInventory Management Puzzle (and often pretty absurd—Bazookas regularly take up as much space as gum wrappers.)

In fandom, this trope is often"justified" with the supposition that the Hyperspace Inventory isactually kept in the character's pants. (This however actually serves to answerexactly none of the objections to the trope.) Some less-than-serious works, such asSpace Quest,Simon the Sorcerer orMonkey Island, take this very literally.

The reverse occurs in many text adventures, where (primarily for design reasons) the player character could only carry a specific number of items (often five) at any one same time. Regardless of how large these items are.

One odd effect of the Hyperspace Arsenal is that characters may struggle to support an item that they have "taken out" or "equipped," and they may not be able to wear something at all if they're not strong enough—yet presumably they're carrying this very item around all the time. Put another way,as long as you can't see it, it weighs nothing. (This could mean that the equipment is too heavy to be feasible in battle, though.)

Another odd effect, usually found in Adventure and Role-Playing games, is an inventory limit on a single kind of item. The classic example is being able to carry 99 healing Potions and 99 Antidotes, but not 198 Potions or even 100. Some games have even more stringent limits.

CompareExtended Disarming, which often happens when a character is asked to empty out theirHyperspace Arsenal. Compare alsoVariable-Length Chain, where chains and whips can "stretch" to attack a far target without being long when unused.

ContrastWalking Armory, where the character is actually shown carrying all of their weapons on their body.

For more general applications, seeHammerspace. For a specific item that does this, seeBag of Holding.

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