Photon Drop

Photon Drop High purity crystal Photon. There is someone who needs this... Type : Photon Max Stack : 99 Hex : 031000

Photon Drop, commonly abbreviated as PD, is a unique item that is used as a common, valuable currency between players. Photon Drops can drop from any enemy or box in the game on any difficulty. They can also be given to Paganini in exchange for items and weapon enhancements. Paganini will trade various items for PDs, at prices ranging from 1 to 99 Photon Drops; he will also add specials to ES Weapons for set amounts of PDs, and he will add attributes to non-ES Weapons at a rate of 5% per 20 PDs.

Uses

In Gallon's Shop, talking to Hopkins with at least one Photon Drop on hand and selecting "Yes" will prompt him to bring the player to his father, Paganini. "Exchange for an item" is the only available option by default, but others can be unlocked after completing special prerequisites in other quests.

Exchanging for Items

Selecting "Exchange for an item" will allow the player to trade all of the Photon Drops in their inventory for an item from Paganini; the selection of items he offers depends on the number of PDs in the player's inventory.

# of PDs	Items Offered
1	AddSlot, Assist Barrier, Recovery Barrier
20	Berill Photon, Blue Barrier, Broom, Flower Cane, Magic Water, Nei's Claw (Replica), Parasitic Cell Type D, Red Barrier, Yellow Barrier
50	Blue-black Stone, Magic Rock "Heart Key", Photon Booster
99	Photon Sphere

Adding Specials to ES Weapons

Global flag ET Paganini (ES SPECIAL) Type : Unlockable Flag (Hex) : 2 Flag (Dec) : 2 Bitmask (Hex) : 00000020 Bitmask (Dec) : 32

If the player brings Paganini the data from the terminal at the top of The East Tower, the "Modify ES Weapon" option will be available for the character that completes this sidequest, though it can be completed on any difficulty. (Paganini will no longer be accessible in this quest for that character once you have done this, as an alternative method of checking completion.)

• Start the East Tower quest
• Talk to Hopkins in the lab (he is in the same place you would find him in Gallon's Shop for accessing "Modify ES Weapon" after sidequest completion)
• Kill Epsilon at the top floor of Control Tower, then interact with the terminal (you will receive a Quest Board item).
  • Upon killing Epsilon, player teleporters (via Telepipe or Ryuker) can no longer be created, and any that are active will be turned off. The gate in the Lab leading to the Central Control Area will also become locked. If you use the provided teleporter before interacting with the terminal, you will be forced to redo the quest to properly complete the sidequest.
• Return to the lab and talk to Hopkins before ending the quest

This allows the player to add a special attack to their ES Weapon, with the available specials depending on the number of PDs in the player's inventory and the ES Weapon in question.

# of PDs	Specials Offered
20	HP Revival*, TP Revival*
30	Blizzard, Burning, Tempest
40	Berserk, Chaos, Geist, Gush, King's, Spirit
50	Arrest, Demon's, Hell
60	Jellen (17), Zalure (21)

^{* HP Revival and TP Revival refer to passive recovery over time, similar to the HP/Revival and TP/Revival units.}

Note that ES Knuckle cannot receive HP Revival and TP Revival, ES Psychogun can only receive HP Revival and TP Revival, and ES Windmill can only receive HP Revival, Jellen, TP Revival, and Zalure.

Adding Attributes to Weapons

Global flag WT Paganini (ATTRIBUTES) Type : Unlockable Flag (Hex) : 2 Flag (Dec) : 2 Bitmask (Hex) : 00000040 Bitmask (Dec) : 64

As a prerequisite, first the player's character must collect the East Tower data for Paganini (see Adding Specials to ES/S-Rank Weapons above for directions).

Then if that character also brings Paganini the data from the terminal in Seabed during The West Tower quest, the "Enhance weapon's Photon" option will be available for the character that completes this sidequest, though it can be completed on any difficulty. (Paganini will no longer be accessible in this quest for that character once you have done this, however this is not an indicator of sidequest completion, as Paganini is inaccessible in this quest if you have not already completed the East Tower sidequest.)

• Start the West Tower quest after having completed the East Tower sidequest
• Talk to Hopkins in the lab (he is in the same place you would find him in Gallon's Shop for accessing "Enhance weapon's Photon" after sidequest completion)
• Traverse the Seabed Upper levels until you find and access the terminal containing the Research Data (you will receive a Quest Board item).
  • Unlike the previous sidequest, you do not have to continue onto the Control Tower to complete this sidequest. Simply access the terminal and then Telepipe or Ryuker back to Pioneer 2.
• Return to the lab and talk to Hopkins before ending the quest

This allows the player to add and boost attribute percentages on their weapons for a set amount of PDs, at 4 PD per 1%, or 20 PDs per 5% on an attribute. A Photon Sphere can also be used to add 30% to an attribute, but only if the attribute in question is at or below 70%. There are some restrictions to adding attributes:

• a weapon cannot have more than three attributes (Excalibur, Lame d'Argent, Sealed J-Sword, and Tsumikiri J-Sword cannot have more than two, and ES Weapons can't have any at all),
• Hit % cannot be added to a weapon,
• an attribute cannot exceed 100%.

Availability

Black Paper's Dangerous Deal

Note that all rates are the chance of getting an item per Photon Crystal, not per roll.

Quest	Difficulty	Rate
Black Paper's Deal 2	Normal	1/9
	Hard	1/16
	Very Hard	1/8.76
	Ultimate	1/8.76

Quest Reward

Photon Drop can be obtained from the Lucky Roulette in Gallon's Shop. If the roulette lands on Paganini after obtaining both God's Shields from him, the player is rewarded a Photon Drop.

Photon Drop can be obtained from the gambling terminal in To The Deepest Blue -MA4 Venue-. After every first-prize item has been won once, any more first-prize wins will be rewarded with a Photon Drop.

Photon Drop can be obtained from the Beak's Cafe roulette.

Events

Photon Drop could be obtained from a Present on Normal difficulty in 2015, all difficulties in 2016, and Normal and Hard difficulties in 2017.

Photon Drop was given as a consolation prize for failing the 5-Egg gambles in the 2016, 2017, and 2018 Egg Shops, as well as the 10-Egg gamble in the 2016 and 2018 Egg Shops.