Upgrade Artifact

Becoming truly skilled at something takes a long time and a lot of hard work. Sometimes, you can handle this with a Training Montage, but the plot doesn't always have enough time for this. So, how DO you go about transforming your Unlucky Everydude into a Badass Superhero in less than an hour?

Why, you hand him an Upgrade Artifact, of course! No hassle, no trouble, just pick this thing up, and you'll instantly learn an important skill! Real heroes work smart, not hard, it seems...

If the object is a magical sword, expect instant Implausible Fencing Powers.

Obviously, a natural result of Powers as Programs. Compare Amplifier Artifact and, for video games, Heart Container. Contrast Exposition Beam, when this is done with memories.

If the object has a variety of effects depending on the demands of the plot, it's Green Rocks.

Anime and Manga

 * The Stand Arrow from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. Normally, it's used to turn normal people into Stand users. However, someone who is already a Stand user will gain additional powers if shot by the arrow again (Yoshikage Kira gained the ability to create time loops near the end of Part 4 to try and escape the heroes), and when a Stand is shot by the arrow, it becomes a MUCH more powerful version of itself, as seen when Polnareff's Silver Chariot becomes Silver Chariot Requiem and gains Freaky Friday Flip abilities. Likewise, Giorno's Gold Experience becomes Gold Experience Requiem and goes from being able to transmute objects into being able to Divide by Zero, thereby thoroughly trouncing Diavolo and his timeskipping abilities.
 * Nanoha and Fate in Lyrical Nanoha became the overpowered mages they are by training a lot. Hayate, who received the power and spells of the Book of Darkness after she became its Master, beats them both in raw magical strength (but because she skipped the basics she suffers from Ace Lightning Syndrome).
 * While training is responsible for much of Nanoha and Fate's crazy power level, a large portion of it is due to their Belka Cartridge Systems, which fall somewhere in between Upgrade Artifacts and normal old Mid-Season Upgrades.
 * Subverted/averted in Dragonball Z:
 * Master Korin tells Goku that the "Sacred Water" from a particular jar will make him stronger, but takes the jar away every time Goku wants to drink from it. In the end, the water has no effect: it's the exercise you have to do to get it that makes you stronger. Truth be told, Korin just fills the jar with ordinary water.
 * Though later he sends him after "Ultra Sacred Water", which DOES have magical powers but tends to kill everyone who can't handle it.
 * The legendary sword which is supposed to make Gohan the strongest warrior in the universe is actually just very heavy. Gohan gets stronger because wielding it is like training with impossibly heavy barbells.
 * Also because it's a Soul Jar containing an ancient Kai who enacts a power-unsealing ritual on Gohan. Admittedly it seems to be a few hours of him dancing around hooting and reading comic books, but it seems to have worked.
 * The dragonballs can be used for anything from resurrecting billions of people to obtaining panties... except leveling up.
 * Unless you count the immortality the balls are capable of granting. Given that Saiyans get stronger every time they get badly beat up, this is all they'd need.
 * The Hogyoku in Bleach.
 * Pactio cards in Mahou Sensei Negima work like this, allowing the magister magi to buff the partner's physical abilities, summon them from a great distance, talk to them telepathically, transform and most importantly gain a new artifact. In most cases this artifact is a reflection of the partner's personality, often giving otherwise mundane girls an ability to fight on the same level as trained martial artists and demons (Asuna's BFS before her Training from Hell, though she already had a Chekhov's Armoury) or a new strength atop their fighting skills (Setsuna's floating Tanto knives). In some cases, the use of this artifact can be determined by the girl's inherent skills, (Haruna's drawing speed, Chisame's hacking-skills). Otherwise it usually serves as a tactical advantage as not to offset the earned talents of trained characters while making weak girls useful in combat (Nodoka's mind-reading book, Yue's Magitek Great Big Book of Everything). In exceptional cases, a girl will gain some tactical advantage while already being trained (Kaede's Ninja scarf).
 * In a twist, any previously-used object can work like that in the hands of a high-level Psychometrist in the Zettai Karen Children universe. Shiho (A Level 7 Psychometer) easily wins a fishing-competition despite having never fished before, simply by using her powers to 'read' the fishing-rod, instantly knowing how best to use it - and later gains Implausible Fencing Powers when handling a 5000-years old saber, since she can copy the abilities of all its previous users.
 * In Guyver, the Gigantic upgrade takes the form of a large piece of Creator technology which can be swapped between the Guyvers. It actually began as an escape pod for a Creator ship which was physically and mentally tied into Sho while it crashed.
 * The Familiar of Zero presents this in the form of familiar runes. When a mage summons their familiar, the contract of servitude is manifested by a set of runes imprinted on the familiar. This can grant the familiar abilities or attributes they previously lacked, such as near-human intelligence, the ability to speak, or, in the case of the eponymous character, the ability to wield any weapon with ease.

Comic Books

 * Prometheus, a supervillain of The DCU, can download the abilities of 30 of the world's best martial artists into his mind by inserting a small CD into his helmet. Batman eventually figures this out and foils him by replacing the abilities with those of Stephen Hawking.
 * The alien symbiote suit of Spider-Man fame. It makes its own webbing, increases his agility and fixes itself when damaged.
 * Don't forget Cosmic Spider-Man, as a result of the Enigma Force choosing Spider-Man as the next Captain Mar-Vell.
 * This is a very common theme in comics in general, as a way of creating new heroes and villans without all that mucking about with backstories.
 * The Helmet of Fate will grant anyone who it allows to wear it incredible magical power and knowledge.
 * In the DC versus Marvel crossover, Wonder Woman acquires Thor's hammer and becomes so powerful that she feels she must discard the hammer before her match with Storm because Storm deserved a fair shot at defending her universe.

Fan Works

 * In Turnabout Storm, Phoenix's mystical Lie Detector, the Magatama, ended up working like this when Twilight made contact with it through her magic. It gave her the ability to see Psyche-Locks without needing to hold the Magatama with her.

Film

 * The Monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey comes in handy for our ape-man ancestors.
 * Used in The Matrix, of course - rather than spend time actually learning Kung Fu, Neo just has it uploaded directly into his brain. Voila, I know kung fu! At various other points in the series, other characters also gets instant uploads of useful skills, such as flying a helicopter, or hotwiring a motorbike.
 * The second is gently spoofed when, before Trinity can be given the hotwiring skills, the Keymaker simply gives her the right key to turn on the bike.
 * The movie Dark City combines the Upgrade Artifact and the Training Montage. The psychic hero John has been captured and will be brainwashed, but the doctor in charge of the operation instead uses a different syringe containing the memories of a lifetime of training and use with his fledgling powers. Needless to say, much ass kicking ensued.
 * Used in Battlefield Earth, though when the humans need to learn how to fly Harrier Jets, they inconveniently forget about the Upgrade Artifact and learn how to fly Harriers thorough trial and error in a few days. There's a reason this movie was so critically panned.
 * If only it was. Other movies survive nonsensical plot holes; Battlefield Earth doesn't for other reasons.

Literature

 * Applied, sort of, in Michael Stackpole's Age of Discovery novel trilogy. Those who are supremely skilled in something can tap into magic through their skill, and they infuse their tools with magic in the process. Anyone who uses the tool thereafter will find his capability vastly increased... until the magic drains out through use. So an untrained peasant could pick up a master's sword, and fight like a master for a little while, slowly getting worse, until they're back to their own natural incompetence when all the magic "battery power" is used up.
 * Both applied and lampshaded in The Inheritance Cycle.
 * First lampshaded when Eragon asks if there is no way to give him the skills he needs, and  responds that, while there is, this would make Eragon startlingly unable to use these acquired skills.
 * Applied later, when Eragon.
 * Later applied when is trained by Galbatorix, who himself has acquired this through.
 * Applied yet again when Eragon . While this doesn't give him new abilities, it does make him far more able to use the abilities he already has.
 * In Isaac Asimov's short story Profession, schools have been replaced by teaching machines that implant the contents of education tapes into young people's minds. General knowledge, including the ability to read and write, is implanted at the age of eight. The knowledge and skills required for a specific profession are implanted at age eighteen, following a test of the individual's abilities, interests, and attitudes.
 * Used in Warcraft the Last Guardian, when the wizard Medivh teaches his apprentice Khadgar how to ride a gryphon.
 * The magical sword Need in the Heralds of Valdemar books will give its bearer magical protection if a fighter, fighting skills if a mage, or both if the bearer is neither. Then things get more complicated...
 * The Helm is an unusually slow-acting example—much of the knowledge it imparts is not accessible by the wearer for months.

Live-Action TV

 * Stargate SG-1 'verse has an Ancient library that can imprint itself into a human mind, resulting in major technological advances. The drawback is
 * Stargate Atlantis has a device that accelerates a human's evolution to that of an Ancient, granting him Psychic Powers such as telepathy, telekinesis, healing, and super-intelligence (even more if the human in question is already a genius). Unfortunaly, the goal of the device is to force Ascension. If the subject is not ready mentally to become an Energy Being, he will die in a matter of days. Fortunately, it is possible to revese the process.
 * In Power Rangers, any Ranger will instinctively know how to use all of his or her gear and Humongous Mecha, and generally only needs to be taught an activation phrase or two. Fighting skills also seem to come with the suit. Billy, the very first Blue Ranger, used Ranger fighting skills while in Ranger form, but in human form, didn't have them and still had to be taught karate to use it out-of-suit. Later Rangers have kept their fight skills in civilian form.
 * Justified in some seasons, where it shows the Rangers have been training for a while before ever getting a morpher. Subverted hard in Power Rangers RPM, where Ziggy's fighting abilities still merely approach competence even after Falling Into the Cockpit.
 * Vampirism in the Buffyverse consists of losing your soul, needing to drink blood, getting reversibly ugly, and spontaneously becoming a hand-to-hand martial artist, even if you were the uncoordinated nerd who'd never even seen The Karate Kid, let alone received any actual training. Those who have had training in life get a serious boost as vampires.
 * Lampshaded in "Lessons" when Buffy is teaching Dawn to fight, and, referring to a vampire who's just crawling out of the grave, Dawn says: "He's new. He doesn't know his strength. He might not know all those fancy martial arts skills they inevitably seem to pick up."
 * Not quite a Lampshade Hanging, but it is explained in the series that a person who becomes a vampire loses his soul and has it replaced by a demon's; it's not a stretch to assume that all demons have combat ability already.
 * On the other hand, Harmony still had absolutely no idea how to fight when she first became a vampire. Also in one episode, Buffy fights a newborn vampire which she usually kills easily, but because he had martial arts training in life it takes her the whole episode to kill him.
 * Don't forget Buffy went to high school with the vampire, which made it awkward. He was Affably Evil, and as psych student, he got Buffy to open up to him and discuss her feelings in between rounds.
 * Also Lampshaded in another episode where a vampire, who used to be a gymnast in his human life, gives the heroes trouble.
 * In some of the official books with original stories (especially the first ones), some vampires outright said things along the lines of "You can't beat me little girl, I was top of my Taekwando class for two years before I died." and so on.
 * Kamen Rider Ryuki averts this. Main protagonist Shinji Kido, who gains the power to become a Kamen Rider but still has the martial arts ability of a civilian. He slowly develops his abilities as the series progresses, eventually becoming quite a proficient fighting.
 * As for the other Kamen Riders, only the ones that would have plausible ability at fighting frequently engage in hand-to-hand combat, such as Ren (bar room brawler), Sudou (hardened cop) and Asakura (psycho outlaw). The others frequently rely on their armour and special abilities to compensate: for example, Kitaoka is mainly a ranged combatant.
 * The Kamen Rider W Straight to DVD movie Kamen Rider W Returns: Accel has the Gaia Memory Enhancing Adapter which triples the power output of any Gaia Memory it is attached to. When attached to the Accel Memory allows Ryu to become Kamen Rider Accel Booster.
 * Chuck: as of the season 3,.
 * Imprinting can work this way in Dollhouse.

Tabletop Games

 * Shadowrun and other cyberpunk tabletop roleplaying games use "skill softs" and linguasofts, datachips containing memories and trained reflexes or foreign languages copied from a donor and uploaded into the recipient's brain via a datajack. For physical skills like combat or piano playing, it's necessary to install a skill wire cyber system into the body's nervous system and limbs which basically remote-controls the body and overwrites its reflexes with new ones while the skill chip is activated. In GURPS Cyberpunk, "slave chips" can be used to paralyze a subject (usually a prisoner) or overwrite his personality with a new subservient one, for example to turn someone into a sex slave.
 * Naturally, these were both invented by William Gibson, the latter in Neuromancer, the former in Mona Lisa Overdrive. The sex chip was usually implanted voluntarily (it makes earning money as a hooker less... icky) and the knowledge imparted by the memory chips vanished as soon as they were removed.
 * His choice of name for memory chips, micro softs dates the novel somewhat.
 * One of the most disturbing Upgrade Artifacts is a specific torture rack in a level of Hell in the 3rd Edition D&D cosmology. Each round a character remains in it, they must not only make a Fortitude save (to avoid passing out) and a Will save (to avoid screaming in agony). If they miss one, they get no benefit. The longer they stay in, the better the benefits, up to fifteen rounds (ninety seconds). However, the benefits must be renewed after 99 days.
 * 1st Edition AD&D included magical books and ioun stones that granted you a free experience level if you read or used them. These were dropped from later editions of the game, on the grounds that levels should be earned through actual play, not found lying around in dungeons.
 * There remain certain artifacts in edition 3.5 (The Book of Vile Darkness, etc) that grant this effect, though they can only be used by divine spellcasters, and then only once in a lifetime.
 * The Deck of Many things in Third Edition can still award enough XP to gain multiple levels. Or it can kill you, or worse. But, up through 3rd edition, the game also had magical Tomes and Manuals that gave the user permanent irreversible upgrades to their physical or mental stats. There are tons of items in the game that make you better at any given skill or task while you're wearing them.
 * One example is the Skillful melee weapon ability from Complete Arcane which allows one to competently operate a weapon without the necessary learning
 * Mage: The Awakening features grimoires, books of magical knowledge that allow those who read them (and have the proper Arcana) to instantly learn spells. Somewhat justified in that a grimoire is created when one mage removes all knowledge of a spell from his mind and puts pen to paper, allowing for ease of instruction and duplication; in addition, the mage who created the grimoire can use it to relearn the spell, and having it around afterwards allows for easier casting of the spell, since you can use it to lighten the mental workload.
 * Munchkin has any number of "gain a level" cards, with excuses like "pay for the pizza", "shut up about your character", and "convenient addition error".

Video Games

 * Frequently used in the Final Fantasy series of games.
 * The first one is possibly the most notable, in that the Upgrade Artifact in question is a rat's tail. As in the literal tail of a rat, which you give to Bahamut to upgrade all four of your characters.
 * In both Final Fantasy III and Final Fantasy V, the characters gains access to the skills of 'ancient warriors' by picking up the shards of the Crystals.
 * Has a small presence in Final Fantasy IV, as Rydia can gain several hidden summons from randomly dropped items.
 * In the DS remake, you can find or receive items called Augments that permanently grant the user new abilities.
 * Final Fantasy VI features Magicite, stones that contain the spirits of dead Espers, which can be used to learn spells and gain stat bonuses by carrying them in battle. Characters can also learn spells from certain weapons and armor found in the game.
 * Final Fantasy IX had a slow acting version, with gemstones and special weapons that contained special abilities that they "taught" to the character. Characters had to wear the item though enough battles to fully learn the ability. Afterward, they could throw away the mentor-item like so much used tissue paper.
 * Final Fantasy Tactics Advance did something similar. Characters had to go through a certain amount of battles with a particular weapon or armor equipped to get abilities.
 * In Final Fantasy X-2, Dress Spheres serves the same function, with the same explanation - they contain the abilities of legendary warriors. This became a plot point, as the memories fueling Yuna's Songstress Dress Sphere are connected to the Big Bad.
 * In Final Fantasy VII the characters had no skills (apart from unique limit breaks). EVERY skill that the player characters had was determined by what "Materia" was inserted into their weapons and armor. Some Materia could be "chained", having one Materia cast another's power when it finished with its own (making for some incredibly powerful combinations such as Final Blow + Phoenix - which made that character unkillable unless Phoenix failed).. One Materia (the Yellow Materia) would even let you use certain enemy skills against them - once the materia had "learned" the skill by being equipped AND having that character get hit by the skill in question. This of course was problematical for skills such as Death, which would kill the character after a timer runs out if it hits.
 * Applied without much explanation in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door - when picking up a new hammer or set of boots, Mario automatically learns a new skill, for no apparent reason. Granted, there is a brief tutorial session with Toadette; maybe Mario's just a quick learner.
 * In Fallout 2 you can find a number of mysterious memory modules which claim to permanently boost base stats, if you figure out how to use them, they allow you to undergo powerful operations... that take weeks to recover from.
 * Fallout 3 has a better example, in the form of bobbleheads and books that raise a specific skill when grabbed.
 * All of the weapons in Drakengard come with a magical spell the protagonist can use perfectly once he equips the weapon. He can also use a variety of weapons and weapon styles perfectly, but that's probably because he's a Badass Normal.
 * In the Metroid series of games, not only does Samus acquire new powers and skills by collecting artifacts, she often loses these artifacts and has to collect them all over again.
 * In Fate/stay night, Emiya Shirou's (and by extension, ) unique Tracing allows him to gain the abilities of his faked weapons' previous owners. Each of the three scenarios also has another Upgrade Artifact: In Fate, it was Avalon. Unlimited Blade Works, it was the eponymous Reality Marble. In Heaven's Feel, Shirou is Blessed with Suck as, which allows him to match up against Servants but quickly overwhelms his mind and body.
 * The Golden Sun series of portable RPGs features items which teach specific psyenergy (the game's equivalent to magic) abilities to the character who equips them.
 * However, these items can be unequipped to be equipped by other characters, making this more a sort of Device Magic. A more fitting example is perhaps the Psyenergy-tablets in the elemental rocks in Golden Sun: The Lost Age.
 * The TMs and HMs in Pokémon, CDs that you stick to your Pokémon's foreheads. Somehow Pokémon can download the data off the disc like that.
 * The various evolution items straddle the line between this an Transformation Trinket. They grant new stats and moves, but unlike 'Trinkets, they aren't reversible.
 * Not to mention Porygon evolves through an item named Upgrade.
 * Don't forget Rare Candy, a level in a wrapper.
 * Shining Force II has Upgrade Artifacts for certain characters that let them promote to different classes than they would under normal circumstances (Mages can upgrade to Wizards or Summon Magic-using Sorcerers, Priests [Healers] can become either Vicars or Monks, etc.)
 * The same thing applies in Fire Emblem, where all base classes can promote at level 10 when using the right item. However, doing so also means missing out on the other 10 levels the character can gain in that class, so it's better to wait until the character has reached the level cap. Unlike a level, a promotion adds predefined stats to the character, and sometimes gives them a new ability and/or the ability to use new weapon types.
 * In Mega Man ZX you acquire new biometals.
 * Secret of Mana (Seiken Densetsu II) had you collect eight orbs each for your eight weapons. Once hammered into place by a trusty dwarf, you could then proceed to ... wait a bit longer for your strongest charge attack (it also increases the base attack of the weapon).
 * The second and final class changes in Seiken Densetsu 3 are sealed, requiring characters to not only reach level 38, but to have an item to break the seal. The item is different for each and every class, and must be "grown" from a seed that Randomly Drops from a few specific (though thankfully unlimited) monsters. That last part is never explained in-game.
 * The augmentation canisters in Geneforge can instantly give your character new abilities or more points in a skill. Unfortunately, they tend to make you more arrogant, violent, and inhuman. Using more than a certain number of them will alter the ending you get.
 * The mysterious Monoliths in Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, which not only repair damaged units, but somehow increases their fighting skills too.
 * World of Warcraft features this too: Sometimes it's an item which the player character can create themselves through their profession to give them a small bonus, while other times its an actual book item that the player uses once to learn a particular skill (Or more likely, upgrade to their profession), such as improved Fishing. A lot of items and weapons DO require the player to be a certain level before they can use it (Including an entire class of Armor).
 * The Assassin's Creed series centers around a device called the Animus, which allows a user to experience the lives of their ancestors stored in Genetic Memory via a virtual reality simulation. Prolonged use of the Animus causes something called a "bleeding effect", whereby the skills of one's ancestors imprint themselves upon the user. Thus, someone can learn to be a master Assassin through mental osmosis of a sort, with only a few potential side-effects... like insanity.
 * In Borderlands, players literally find "artifacts" that they use to apply elemental effects to their action skill.
 * The STALKER games features radioactive objects that grant you immunities to environmental hazards, the ability to mend your wounds, or extra weight capacity depenging on the artifact.
 * The relics in later Castlevania games are like this, often cube shaped things that give you magic powers. You can even turn them on and off at will!
 * In Nexus the Jupiter Incident you manage to acquire a disabled mechanoid. Angel, the ship's AI advisor, subsequently integrates the mechanoid craft into the Angelwing at a molecular level, in spite of being told not to. The Cptn. Cromwell, while already having gotten several ship upgrades, takes a new level of awesome.
 * Circuit's Edge, the cyberpunk murder-mystery adventure based on When Gravity Fails by George Alec Effinger, features a wide variety of mind-enhancing and skill-providing software directly installed in one's brain in a vein similar to fellow cyberpunk pioneer, Neuromancer.
 * This is how you improve your ship in Dark Star One. By collecting enough artifacts, you can upgrade the Darkstar's wings, hull or engines, and unlock new abilities for the Plasma Cannon.
 * Snailiad has the Devastator, which upgrades all three of your weapons.

Webcomics

 * The ancient spirits in Circumstances of the Revenant Braves give an individual instant special powers as well as the skill to use them.
 * In The Order of the Stick, while Redcloak is a formidable spellcaster in his own right, his Crimson Mantle artifact grants him longevity, resistance to disease, and the knowledge needed to alter the order of the cosmos (with the right tools, of course).
 * In El Goonish Shive, the Dewitchery Diamond awakened Elliot's magical potential and created Ellen who's potential was awakened from the start.

Web Original

 * In the Whateley Universe, the sentient magic sword Destiny's Wave granted Alex Farshine qing gong agility, Taoist healing knowledge, peak physical fitness, superb martial-arts skills, Implausible Fencing Powers, and the ability to speak, read and write Chinese. Oh, and transformed him into a hot Chinese Girl.
 * Subverted with the SCP Foundation's SCP-572, a katana which makes the wielder think they're an invulnerable badass. And not only does it give the wielder delusions of grandeur, it's badly balanced and its edge is blunter than a butter knife.

Western Animation

 * The series finale of Get Ed features an alien artifact simply known as "The Machine" which, when activated, will grant Ed superpowers (flight, energy blasts, etc). However, rather than turning Ed into a singular, superpowered teen hero, the artifact mistakenly splits the power between Ed and the Big Bad Bedlam, who has cloned Ed's DNA onto himself.
 * Half the episodes of this series involve various attempts of both Bedlam and Ed to get ahold of other Ed artifacts. Only two of those artifacts make lasting reappearances: Ed's Slammer, an extendable energy beam weapon that works like a sword or whip. And Ed's Optical upgrades that allow him to see in the dark.
 * In the Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers episode "It's a Bird, It's Insane, It's Dale!", the eponymous Dale comes into possession of an alien rock that cause anyone who comes in contact with it to become stretchy and bouncy. Naturally, the episode's villain also acquires a piece, and uses it to commit Carmen Sandiego-scale acts of theft. Rubber Bando!
 * The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles receive these in the fifth season of the second cartoon, in the form of amulets which, along with the new weapons they're given, allow them to use ninja abilities reminiscent to those in Naruto.
 * Subverted in Kung Fu Panda, where
 * It pulled double-duty as a Secret Test of Character:
 * Xiaolin Showdown had the collecting of magical artifacts as its whole MacGuffin, but still, the young monks would sometimes be presented with particularly powerful ones as a reward when they had officially reached a new level of skill.
 * Parodied in Space Jam, when Bugs writes "Mike's Secret Stuff" on an ordinary bottle of water to make the Toons play better.
 * Cyborg of Teen Titans once had a super processing chip named the Max-7 installed to increase his speed, strength, and intelligence. Unfortunately, he overloaded it and had to have it removed.

Real Life

 * We already have these. We call it technology. We've had it sense the first cave man got the idea of picking up a rock.