The Gadgetron Personal Delivery Assistant, or Gadgetron PDA, is an optional gadget in Ratchet & Clank, Up Your Arsenal, Size Matters, and Secret Agent Clank. It functions as a portable vendor and allows Ratchet to purchase ammo (not weapons) for Gadgetron weapons remotely, but for a higher price than at a normal weapons vendor, due to shipping and handling.[1] In Ratchet & Clank the price varies from twice to ten times as expensive, in Size Matters it is always multiplied by five, whereas in Up Your Arsenal and Secret Agent Clank, it is always multiplied by ten.
In Ratchet & Clank, bolts are scarce, meaning it is often best avoiding it in favor of ordinary vendors. Bolts are much less scarce in later games, though the PDA itself is much more expensive (apart from Secret Agent Clank where it can be acquired for free) and ammo refreshes after death anyway, making it a skippable purchase. It is a bit more useful in the first game where ammo does not replenish after death, and it can be useful in boss fights in any of the games if you run low on ammo in the middle of a fight. It is most useful in Secret Agent Clank, where there are no regular Gadgetron vendors in Ratchet's sections and it serves as the only way he can buy ammo, though he can also simply obtain ammo by breaking crates.
History[]
Ratchet & Clank[]
Captain Qwark, under the alias "Steve McQwark", sold the Gadgetron PDA. It was one of several bogus Gadgetron merchandise that Qwark sold, along with the Personal Hygenator. During "Purchase Gadgetron PDA from 'Steve'", Ratchet found him by a stall in Gorda City, Oltanis, and saw through his disguise quickly. Qwark read out a script and sold Ratchet the PDA for 1,000 bolts. The PDA allowed Ratchet to purchase ammo from any location, for 2-10 times the normal ammo price.
Qwark was later imprisoned for selling bogus merchandise which he claimed were Gadgetron products, including the PDA.[2]
Up Your Arsenal[]
Ratchet and Clank found the Gadgetron PDA on Qwark's hideout on the Thran Asteroid Belt, where he kept the PDA in a vendor machine along with a Crotchitizer and Personal Hygenator. Ratchet found it by using a grav-ramp path located near where the Star Explorer landed, opposite the path to the hideout's entrance. It was purchased for 250,000 bolts. It functioned identically to the original PDA, and would not deliver ammo for the five Megacorp weapons purchased from Slim Cognito.
Size Matters[]
The Gadgetron PDA was first made available for purchase at a Gadgetron vendor in the Technomite City on Challax, during "Explore the miniature city". It could be purchased for 50,000 bolts, and functions identically to previous appearances, though it only charged five times more than usual rather than ten. Ammo could be purchased for all weapons except for the Static Barrier.
Secret Agent Clank[]
The Gadgetron PDA can be acquired for Ratchet upon beating "No good deed goes unpunished." in the showers of the Prison Planet. It functions identically to previous weapons, although it did not sell ammo for the RYNO. The gadget was also the only way for Ratchet to acquire ammo while in prison.
Clank can also find an Agency PDA, which is identical in function and appearance.