Hero bolts from All 4 One.
Special bolts are rare collectibles in the Ratchet & Clank series, appearing in all games aside from Deadlocked and Quest for Booty. They are larger bolts which are only found in locations that are hard to find and/or reach, or as rewards for certain challenges.
Special bolts include gold bolts, platinum bolts, titanium bolts, and hero bolts. Their appearance varies by game, though they are used to either to purchase certain extras, or upgrades and modifications to weapons, depending on the game.
Appearances[]
Ratchet & Clank (2002)[]
A gold bolt, as seen in Ratchet & Clank.
There are forty gold bolts hidden across all of the locations. They are used, along with a varying sum of bolts, to purchase gold weapons from a gold weapons room on either the Gemlik Base or in Novalis in challenge mode. Many are accessible on the first visit, while others can only be acquired after revisiting the location later with a required item.
Going Commando[]
A platinum bolt, as seen in Going Commando.
Forty platinum bolts are found throughout each of the locations. They are the rarest form of currency in the Bogon Galaxy,[1] used to purchase weapon mods from Slim Cognito on Endako, Boldan, and Tabora. Many are found hidden in secret areas, though others are found as reward for arena combat, hoverbike racing, or space combat missions.
Up Your Arsenal[]
A titanium bolt, as seen in Up Your Arsenal.
Forty titanium bolts are found throughout most the locations, with one as a reward for the Nerves of Titanium challenge on the VR deck, and five in total for completing each Qwark vid-comic with all 100 Qwark tokens collected. They are solely used for purchasing extra skins in the Special menu.
Going Mobile[]
Going Mobile exists in two different versions; Series 40 and Series 60, each with a different number of titanium bolts. Both reward the player with a R.Y.N.O. upon collecting all of them however. The former version has only nine bolts, with only one requiring an item to collect it. The latter version has a total of 31, with only thirty being required for the weapon. The game claims there are only 30 bolts, but an extra 31st bolt is found in Security BIOS, which appears to only have three bolts as per the hub menu.
Size Matters[]
A titanium bolt, as seen in Size Matters.
Twenty titanium bolts are available, hidden throughout each of the locations in Size Matters. They are used to purchase character skins. Collecting them all rewards the player with the Dan Johnson skin for use in multiplayer.
Secret Agent Clank[]
Secret Agent Clank features a total of 23 titanium bolts, 18 of which are found as Clank, with the other five being acquired as Ratchet by completing the final challenge in each of the five areas of the Prison Planet. The bolts are identical to those in Size Matters, and are used to purchase character skins, with no reward for collecting them all.
Tools of Destruction[]
A gold bolt, as seen in Tools of Destruction.
32 gold bolts are found throughout each of the locations. In the Aphelion space combat sections—Voron Asteroid Belt, Rakar Star Cluster, and Verdigris Black Hole—all five rainbow-colored bonus targets must be destroyed to obtain them. Gold bolts are used to purchase skins for Ratchet, and only enough gold bolts are available to buy all the game's skins. Obtaining all gold bolts awards the "Golden Children" skill point.
A Crack in Time[]
A gold bolt, as seen in A Crack in Time.
A Crack in Time features forty gold bolts, which are found throughout each of the locations and on certain moons as Ratchet, and in the Great Clock as Clank, sometimes by completing planet rooms. They are used to unlock skins. Bonus bolts are also awarded when gold bolts are acquired. Obtaining all gold bolts awards the "Bolt Collector" trophy.
All 4 One[]
The special bolts in All 4 One are known as hero bolts. 42 total are found on planet Magnus, and are required to unlock different skins. They are collected using the Vac-U, and individually colored bolts appear for each character: gold hero bolts for Ratchet, light blue hero bolts for Clank, green hero bolts for Captain Qwark, and purple hero bolts for Dr. Nefarious.
Full Frontal Assault[]
Twenty gold bolts are found split across the four main locations in Full Frontal Assault. As in All 4 One, in cooperative play, two gold bolts appear in each gold bolt location, one for each player (with the color changing accordingly for each). Gold bolts unlock cosmetic skins for use in the multiplayer mode.
Before the Nexus[]
The hero bolt from Before the Nexus.
Green hero bolts are featured in Before the Nexus as random collectibles that can be used during runs to restore Ratchet to full health whenever he perishes, making them serve as a 'Continue' option. A free hero bolt is granted upon completing all three available skill points during that run.
Into the Nexus[]
A gold bolt, as seen in Into the Nexus.
A total of 12 gold bolts are found through the game's locations, and two are won in the Destructapalooza. Similar to the original Ratchet & Clank, they are used alongside regular bolts to purchase Omega weapon upgrades in challenge mode.
Ratchet & Clank (2016)[]
_screen.png){kind=link}
A gold bolt, as seen in the 2016 re-imagined Ratchet & Clank.
A total of 28 gold bolts are found hidden throughout the locations, including two along the hoverboard race tracks, with one as a reward for the optional mission "Find a way to the top of the waterfall" on Pokitaru. These are used to unlock extras from the game menu. Extras are not purchased individually, as the number of gold bolts collected determines how many extras the player has unlocked. Gold bolts are also required to unlock vaults in the Insomniac Museum, though the first vault is unlocked after completing the game.
Rift Apart[]
A gold bolt, as seen in Rift Apart.
A total of 25 gold bolts are found hidden throughout the locations, including two as rewards for winning the battleplex challenges "Awesome Bugtrax Done Quick" and "Pest Control", and another two from Glitch. These are used to activate several cheats and player customizations that are available from the Collectibles menu.
Behind the scenes[]
In early builds of Going Commando, including the demo release, gold bolts from the original Ratchet & Clank were used, instead of platinum bolts.[2]