Hunting common weapons

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Common weapons can be found by opening certain item boxes, or by defeating certain enemies that have a chance to drop a weapon as their set drop. Unlike rare weapons, which can only be found by defeating a particular enemy with a particular Section ID, common weapons can be found in any area regardless of section ID, and can be dropped by more than one enemy in each area.

General information

In order to hunt common weapons with high hit percentage, it is recommended to hunt in areas that provide the best pattern selection for each attribute roll, because pattern 4 has a greatly increased rate at which attribute values between 50-90% are rolled compared with other patterns, and is the only pattern capable of finding weapons with 90% or higher on a given attribute if the weapon is untekked.


Most item boxes have a chance of dropping a weapon on ultimate difficulty from 6-9% depending on the area.[1] However, certain item boxes are set to drop specific items (such as Moon Atomizers in Phantasmal World 2) and therefore cannot drop weapons. After killing a boss, there are often a certain number of boxes that are guaranteed to contain weapons. Though often associated with "Boss rush" quests, certain item boxes may be designated to drop weapons outside of the boss area in certain quests, such as in the Endless Nightmare series. On the other hand, certain quests containing a boss such as Lost HELL PALLASCH do not spawn any boxes after defeating the boss.

Finding common weapons by defeating enemies

Each time an enemy is defeated, the game rolls to determine whether an item will drop, and if so, what that item will be in the following order:

  1. The game rolls for event drops, such as Event Egg or Coal
  2. The game rolls for Music disks (1/600 across all enemies)
  3. The game rolls based on the enemy's Drop anything rate (DAR) to determine if the enemy has the possibility of dropping anything else
  4. The game rolls to decide if the enemy will drop its specified rare item (depending on area, Section ID, and difficulty)
  5. The game rolls to determine whether the drop is Meseta, a Tool, or the enemy's set drop (1/3 chance for any of these)

Therefore, if an enemy that could drop a common weapon drops its designated rare item, it loses out on a 1/3 chance of dropping a weapon. Because event drops and Music disks are rolled prior to DAR, they are less likely to nullify the chance for a weapon to drop.

Due to the complexity of calculating for the chance that event drops, Music disks, or rare items will nullify the chance that an enemy capable of dropping weapons will drop a weapon, and the relative insignificance of such nullified rolls to overall averages of weapons dropped, we will use the following simplified formula for calculating the chance that an enemy with weapon designated as its set drop will drop a weapon:

[(Enemy's base DAR x DAR boosts) /3]

For example, the Claws found in Ruins have a base DAR of 30% on ultimate. If there were no boosts to DAR, we could use the formula as follows:

[(0.30 x 1) /3] = 0.10, or, a 1/10 chance of dropping a weapon upon being defeated.

Mine

Although neither Mine 1 or Mine 2 can roll pattern 4 for attributes naturally on Ultimate difficulty, this can be achieved by playing on Anguish.

The following enemies in Mine have weapons as their set drop:

Due to the high natural Drop Anything Rate of Sinow Blues, players hunting common weapons are advised to play quests with high numbers of this enemy.

Boxes in Mine 1 and Mine 2 have an 8% chance of containing a weapon.

Number of Weapons Found on average per run (no boosts)
Quest Name Gilchics Dubchics Sinow Blues Item Boxes Weapon Boxes Total Average
Sweep-up Operation 3 5.7 2.2 3.8 2.56 0 14.26
Mop-up Operation 3 5.9 0.9 3.4 3.36 8 21.56
Endless Nightmare 3 10.8 3.7 9.6 4.72 6 34.82
Scarlet Realm 3 13 4 13 0? 0? 30
Lost SOUL BLADE 8.5 1.7 14 6.4 19 49.6

Ruins

All areas of Ruins have natural access to at least one 4th attribute pattern roll, with Ruins 1 having only 1 chance, Ruins 2 having 2 chances, and Ruins 3 having 3 chances.

The following enemies in Ruins have weapons as their set drop:

Players can spawn an additional 4 claws for each Bulclaw they split, making Ruins a popular area for hunting common weapons.

Boxes in Ruins 1 have an 8% chance of containing a weapon, while boxes in Ruins 2 and Ruins 3 have a 9% chance of containing a weapon.

Central Control Area (CCA)

While only Seaside and Central Control Area have natural access to one 4th pattern attribute roll, playing on Anguish difficulty gives the player all 4th pattern attribute rolls in Jungle East, Mountain, Seaside, and Central Control Area. Due to the high concentration of monsters with weapons as their set drop in this area, CCA is a popular area for hunting common weapons on Anguish difficulty. It should be noted that Jungle North cannot access 4th pattern attribute rolls under any circumstance.

The following enemies in CCA have weapons as their set drop:

Boxes in all areas of CCA have a 7% chance of containing a weapon.

Seabed

Seabed Upper and Lower have natural access to 4th pattern attribute rolls, and contain a high concentration of enemies with weapons as their set drop. For this reason, Seabed is one of the most popular areas for hunting common weapons.

The following enemies in Seabed have weapons as their set drop:

Due to the high natural Drop Anything Rate of Delbiters, players hunting common weapons are advised to play quests with high numbers of this enemy.

Due to the low Drop Anything Rate of Recons, most players simply kill the Recoboxes from which they spawn, making the contribution of Recons to the average number of weapons found per quest negligible.

Boxes in all areas of Seabed have an 8% chance of containing a weapon.

Control Tower

Control Tower naturally rolls only 4th pattern attributes when dropping weapons, but has a low concentration of enemies with weapons as their set drop. For this reason, Control Tower is less efficient for players looking to hunt commons weapons with high hit.

The following enemies in Control Tower have weapons as their set drop:

Due to the high natural Drop Anything Rate of Delbiters, players hunting common weapons are advised to play quests with high numbers of this enemy.

Due to the low Drop Anything Rate of Recons, most players simply kill the Recoboxes from which they spawn, making the contribution of Recons to the average number of weapons found per quest negligible.

Boxes in Control Tower have an 8% chance of containing a weapon.

Crater

While no area in Crater has natural access to 4th pattern attribute rolls, Crater North and Crater Interior gain access to 4th pattern attribute rolls when playing on Anguish. Crater East, Crater West, and Crater South cannot access the 4th pattern attribute rolls under any circumstance. Despite having numerous enemies with weapons as their set drop, the numbers of each of these enemies that appear per quest is lower than other areas, making hunting common weapons in this area generally unpopular.

The following enemies in Crater have weapons as their set drop:

Due to the unlikely probability of sighting rare monsters such as Pazuzu and Dorphon Eclair and considering their naturally high Rare Drop Rate (RDR), they contribute minimally towards average numbers of common weapons found per run.

Boxes in all areas of Crater have a 7% chance of dropping a weapon.

Subterranean Desert

Similar to Ruins, all areas of Subterranean Desert have natural access to at least one 4th attribute pattern roll, with Desert 1 having only 1 chance, Desert 2 having 2 chances, and Desert 3 having 3 chances. Despite this, Desert contains only 3 enemies capable of dropping common weapons, and one of those is a rare enemy. For this reason, Desert is generally less efficient than other areas for hunting high hit common weapons.

The following enemies in Desert have weapons as their set drop:

Due to the unlikely probability of sighting a Pazuzu, and considering its naturally high Rare Drop Rate (RDR), it contribute minimally towards average numbers of common weapons found per run.

Boxes in Desert 1 have a 7% chance of containing a weapon, while boxes in Desert 2 and Desert 3 have an 8% chance of containing a weapon.