Everyone’s handing out free stuff at PAX, but here are the things you should actively seek out.

You already pay to get in to PAX, so you deserve something for all the work it takes to walk around and look at stuff. These seven companies how tiring that experience can be, so they’re aiming to make dropping by worth your while.

Cotton Candy | Kirby

I’m not sure how he plans on eating that.

What foodstuff to better represent the sickly sweet ball of fluff than cotton candy? Nintendo was handing out the carnival treat near their demo stations.

Chocolate Chip Cookies | Good Old Games

The actual cookies were not invisible.

Good Old Games was handing out cookies. And not just any cookies — fressh-baked cookies. They had an oven at the booth, and two grannies sitting in rockers knitting. It was like visiting grandma’s house…if you’re grandma was also a hardcore gamer with a selection of awesome classic games.

Swag Bag | PAX

Free stuff!

Sure, this one’s cheating; pretty much everyone who comes gets a swag bag. And for the most part it’s full of useless filler. But there are always a few diamonds in the bag: a League Legends promo code, and a tasty fortune cookie.

Trading Cards | Word Fighter

Like baseball cards for nerds.

While trading cards themselves are plentiful on the show floor, these are special because of how big this game is going to get. Think Words With Friends mixed with Puzzle Fighter…these things are going to be collector’s items one day.

Night at the Inventory | Telltale

If you like Poker, it’s hard not to recommend Night at the Inventory. Telltale was handing out codes to download the game for free on PC!

League of Legends Skins

Lightning bolt!

Show that you leave the house sometimes in this DotA-style online game by showing off these avatar skins that, so far, have only been made available here.

T-Shirts | Everyone

The winning fan design from Irrational’s recent online contest.

Classy, understated, timeless…this is how to make a videogame shirt.

There are a lot of t-shirts being handed out at PAX. Most of the suck. But beyond the obvious startegy of looking for t-shirts related to game’s your excited about there are three t-shirt desgins you should actively seek out: BioShock Infinite, Shadow of the collossus, and Ico. Shame tarps you can be proud of.

Everyone’s handing out free stuff at PAX, but here are the things you should actively seek out.

You already pay to get in to PAX, so you deserve something for all the work it takes to walk around and look at stuff. These seven companies how tiring that experience can be, so they’re aiming to make dropping by worth your while.

Cotton Candy | Kirby

I’m not sure how he plans on eating that.

What foodstuff to better represent the sickly sweet ball of fluff than cotton candy? Nintendo was handing out the carnival treat near their demo stations.

Chocolate Chip Cookies | Good Old Games

The actual cookies were not invisible.

Good Old Games was handing out cookies. And not just any cookies — fressh-baked cookies. They had an oven at the booth, and two grannies sitting in rockers knitting. It was like visiting grandma’s house…if you’re grandma was also a hardcore gamer with a selection of awesome classic games.

Swag Bag | PAX

Free stuff!

Sure, this one’s cheating; pretty much everyone who comes gets a swag bag. And for the most part it’s full of useless filler. But there are always a few diamonds in the bag: a League Legends promo code, and a tasty fortune cookie.

Trading Cards | Word Fighter

Like baseball cards for nerds.

While trading cards themselves are plentiful on the show floor, these are special because of how big this game is going to get. Think Words With Friends mixed with Puzzle Fighter…these things are going to be collector’s items one day.

Night at the Inventory | Telltale

If you like Poker, it’s hard not to recommend Night at the Inventory. Telltale was handing out codes to download the game for free on PC!

League of Legends Skins

Lightning bolt!

Show that you leave the house sometimes in this DotA-style online game by showing off these avatar skins that, so far, have only been made available here.

T-Shirts | Everyone

The winning fan design from Irrational’s recent online contest.

Classy, understated, timeless…this is how to make a videogame shirt.

There are a lot of t-shirts being handed out at PAX. Most of the suck. But beyond the obvious startegy of looking for t-shirts related to game’s your excited about there are three t-shirt desgins you should actively seek out: BioShock Infinite, Shadow of the collossus, and Ico. Shame tarps you can be proud of.

If you have extra money to spend, and you made it to PAX, here are a few items that are worth the extra cash.

The best things in life may be free, but there’s a lot of good stuff you have to pay good money for as well. If you’re at PAX this year, there’s still time to stop by these shops and give them massive amounts of your cash in exchange for awesome things. And if you couldn’t make it to PAX this year, you’ll be able to find a lot of this great stuff online!

Everything at the Behemoth Booth

Dan looks lovingly upon that which he has created.

The only PAX-exclusive item is a convention t-shirt and a few hard-to-get mini figurines, but the real reason to buy from the store here is so that artist Dan Paladin can sign your newly acquired fan swag!

New Cthulhu Dice

A plush Cthulhu creeps into the side of this picture as if to say, ‘please buy me!’

The company behind awesome board games like Munchkin is at PAX with a slew of items that won’t be available online until after the show. While what you buy will probably depend on what you’re already playing, I’m partial to the new alternate colors available for Cthulhu dice. If you couldn’t make the show, you can see their catalog of available games at SJGames.com.

Pipe Mug

Cute mug, but it’s annoying when Italian plumbers keep trying to jump inside it while you’re drinking coffee.

The Fangamer group doesn’t have any exclusives at the show this year, but if you’ve ever wanted to see their high-quality merch in person before dropping the money to pick it up, this is a great chance. Their biggest seller at the show has been the pipe mug you see above; you can find plenty more shirts, collectibles, and more at their site Fangamer.net.

The Bastion Soundtrack

Coming soon: A narrator who syncs with your MP3 player and narrates your entire life.

The Bastion soundtrack is one of my favorite musical scores released this year, but Supergiant games makes buying it at PAX a little sweeter: their copies are only $15 and come signed by the dev team.

Official PAX T-Shirt

It’s like a fast food restaurant for swag.

While a bunch of the shirts and posters available here also come online, the PAX booth is your only chance to get an official PAX t-shirt. It’s like buying the band t-shirt when they’re on tour.

Hard-to-Find Game Soundtracks

A little slice of Japan right on the convention floor.

You can shop Pink Gorrilla’s stock of retro and import gaming goods online, but there’s just something a lot more exciting about getting through thumb through their library of games and soundtracks in person.