Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Rare Blade Drop Rate Datamined
- Thread starter Zeno
- Start date
Seems pretty out of touch with their player base.
Everyone knows RPG fans are a bunch of obsessive min/maxers.
One thing I never was clear on-- does completing Merc Quests unlock the little quest nodes on rare blades or not? I know I sent Zenobia on many merc missions but I still had to complete the little objectives in her growth chart. It seems like sometimes sending rare blades on merc quests unlocked certain nodes but not others.
That's the worst idea posted in this thread by a longshot
That's the worst idea posted in this thread by a longshot
I still have yet to get Newt or Theory (the latter being quest-related), so it makes it all the more remarkable that I got KOS-MOS when I did towards the end of chapter 8. The RNGesus giveth and the RNGesus taketh away.
Well I feel even luckier that I pulled Kos-Mos. That being said, My fence position inthis System has turned completely negative. Hope it's never implemented like this again.
I've already forgotten a lot of the lists, but how biased is it towards the characters that have quests and affinity charts that start earlier in the game? KOS-MOS' quest is literally in the last dungeon, while characters like Elektra and Ursula start in Torigoth.
The reason nothing unlocked on Zenobia is because all of her affinity chart involves beating unique monsters. Those never fill up through merc missions.
It does, but the node before it needs to be unlock first, say lv 2 is the merc one, then lv 1 needs to be unlock for the merc mission to function. If the node before it is lock then the merc mission won't cound. Is a bit annoying since one blade (The bravest of the bravest!) is mostly merc mission to unlock it's potential. Don't get me started on the food stack for Boris...ugh!
Edit: Thought you meant the nodes that read 'Merc Mission'. After another person reply I understood better the message. Leaving my original post for information...but yeah the ones that required monsters/unique monster won't fill via Merc Mission. I wish this let you map monster for hunting like X did, so annoying remember a monsters name while hunting it just to do the nodes.
Two missions are guaranteed to unlock a node unless it's a named beast or quest related one.
Still have to grind for affinity in most cases.
It's a fairly bad system, yeah.
On one hand, I really want to track down the rare blades that interest me (including KOS-MOS). On the other, during battle there is so much that draws your attention away from the action, and the action itself isn't that special, that even if I did get the blades I wanted I wouldn't really appreciate it much. Other than the cool art on the character page, and the intro animations (which I can watch elsewhere), I don't really feel like I'm missing much.
I don't have the game yet but I kind of like the sound of this system. I can imagine being proper happy with running around with a super rare blade if I'm lucky enough to get one. We don't have to get everything that's in a game, it's like rare loot in an mmo. Just my thoughts.
I've finished the game, and I don't have all the rare blades. I'm ok with the system though. If people are ok with games like Diablo and low drop rates of loot in general, I don't see much difference between that and the blade system. Yes each rare blade has a quest, but the rarest loot in many games also offer unique playstyles that are often only possible because of the bonuses they offer. And people don't grumble about that, you just grind / run the raid more till it drops. In XC2, cores are easily farmable, and driver combos make a boss drop several a fight.
Could it be better? Sure. The pity rate could have kept going (taking longer each time till a max of say 50 cores a drop) till you get all the cores. You should be able to skip more of the animation (already coming in a patch), or maybe pull multiple cores at once. Its not perfect, but its also not the game ruiner some people are talking about. And its probably better than most paid loot box systems where theres a cap on how many a free player can get before you get hit with severely diminishing returns
Could it be better? Sure. The pity rate could have kept going (taking longer each time till a max of say 50 cores a drop) till you get all the cores. You should be able to skip more of the animation (already coming in a patch), or maybe pull multiple cores at once. Its not perfect, but its also not the game ruiner some people are talking about. And its probably better than most paid loot box systems where theres a cap on how many a free player can get before you get hit with severely diminishing returns
FWIW, you do get a couple of rare Blades handed to you throughout the story, a couple are tied to exploring the world just a little deeper and there are also a couple in which their Blade quest revolves around getting that Blade on completion. Both of the tank characters really don't need more than what's handed to you for their role to be absolutely great (literally, in the case of Tora, since he gets just three Blades the entire game), and you can put up very solid builds in their respective roles with what they hand you without resorting to RNG. That's not to diminish the other rare Blades at all, especially since all of them can be very, very powerful and surpass some of the ones they give you through normal means (KOS-MOS isn't just for fanservice, let me tell you that much!), but you can have a great time without worrying about what table they put you on when you don't get what you're looking for.
I'm at chapter five and have enough rare blades to fill out the party, and i got the two i really wanted (Finch and Boreas) so i'm set for the rest of the game, i think.
Still, this system suuuuucks. Getting blades on the wrong character is the worst, and there aren't many overdrive protocols either? At this point i only want the blades for their special/field abilities.
Slightly off topic; Do all the rare blades get their own sidequests? I stumbled on Electra's though i have no idea who i'm supposed to talk to, to advance it lol.
Still, this system suuuuucks. Getting blades on the wrong character is the worst, and there aren't many overdrive protocols either? At this point i only want the blades for their special/field abilities.
Slightly off topic; Do all the rare blades get their own sidequests? I stumbled on Electra's though i have no idea who i'm supposed to talk to, to advance it lol.
Yeah, all of the rare Blades aside from the ones that the story gives you (for obvious reasons) get their own Blade quest. Every rare Blade also has at least one Heart-to-Heart that they're a part of, too.
Considering KOS-MOS can break the difficulty curve rather early on, I can't say I'm surprised. I got her at around 75 hours in on a rare core crystal with Zeke. I had trouble with the final boss without her but when I got her I literally beat it first try lol.
It's literally all the same thing whether it's called gacha, lootbox, RNG, a loot drop in Diablo, etc. CSGO, Overwatch, and PUBG might be played for the gameplay, but they make shitloads off of lootboxes too.
Except this is fun because it isn't for clothes and no money is involved and Xenoblade is a good game.
Not sure how there can be a western specific view on this particular form of RNG. It has a funny name?
Yeah, there's a good reason why the number of light-elements Blades are as low as it is, since all of them are easily in the top five most powerful Blades in the entire game. I've got nothing but jealousy for anyone that got KOS-MOS prior to Mythra, but that probably trivialized most of the game at that point.
Sorry for the late reply, but thanks! That's great. I thought the game would play favourites and only do a few of them.
What's cool about the Blade quests is that they have a couple scenes in them that are fully voiced, so they're eligible to be seen again in the event viewer. Sadly, the Heart-to-Hearts, which are fully voiced, are one-shots, which is a shame since there are so many hilarious moments in them, along with some cool little backstory bits.
Yeah, there definitely needs to be more functionality to rewatch H2H scenes. They are mostly very good.
People shouldn't feel bad about getting KOS-MOS near the end of the game. Part of the justification for seeding her lower is that her quest starts in the final dungeon sequence. A bunch of the common ones start in the first, second, or third major cities, so you actually get to experience their quests, both by starting their scenes or doing activities that really require a LOT of time/merc quests.
You could also beat the boss on the first try with any Common that has Machine Hunter and Orb Master, though. I think people underestimate how tremendous of a damage boost Orb Master is off of the regular blades.
Out of town for the weekend but currently nearing the end of the game. Only 6 more rare blades, including kos mos... very curious to read this! The gatcha system and the field skills were 2 blights on an otherwise excellent game...
I don't think its "literally" the same thing. I wouldn't say overwatch lootboxes are quite the same as..I dunno, MTG card packs but that's a different discussion for a different topic.
There are idiosyncratic differences on this topic for sure though, you can see those on the changes made in particular to korean MMO's shipping on the west where they cut back on grinding or egregious P2W mechanics as well as the sheer popularity of gacha games in Japan.
Whether XB2's implementation is fun or not is a personal opinion. You can find plenty of users on this same thread that absolutely loath the system. I would also say money IS involved as you paid $60 on a rpg that gated story content behind an RNG algorithm. We're not talking about the probability of an item drop. We're talking about an actual sidequest that you will not be able to access without that specific rare blade.
That does sound pretty great. I should have got it at launch but too many games to play. It will have to be my next game after Sea of Thieves! Do I need to finish the first one? I'm pretty far into the 3DS version but stopped when I hit a wall. I should go back and finish it really.
Edit: Can anyone explain the tables for me? I don't quite get it. Or is it something I don't need to worry about and the game will tell me when I need to?
If you're already that far into the first game, I think it would be very worthwhile to finish it before heading into 2. It's not required to play before 2 or anything like that, but it's too good a game not to see it through to its very satisfying conclusion.
First game is certainly not required, but it is definitely recommended (both for its own merit and for some heavy references in this game), especially if you're close to the end..
Honestly, you don't even need to understand the tables at all to play the game. Nobody knew this at launch, and it didn't really affect anyone's playstyle. But as far as how it works, apparently the game picks one of five options when you start a file. If you got option 1, blades A, B, and C, will be more likely to be pulled in general, but blades D, E, and F will be straight up given to you the longer you go without pulling a rare blade. Whereas option 3 might do the opposite--D, E, and F will be more likely to be pulled on your standard attempts, while A, B, and C will be your pity pulls. That's the gist of it, though with a much larger pool of blades and with more nuanced rates and such.
Game doesn't explain it because it doesn't really need to (although there are certainly things the game should explain that it doesn't, like boosters).
Personally I think the gacha is fantastically designed. Only thing I would change is make Legendary cores give a guaranteed Rare Blade or at least a much higher chance.
It seems like people are completely misunderstanding the pity system. I mean, at least half seem to get it, but a lot of people are acting like the pity system is broken and stops working after a while.
When you start the game, the game will pick one of 5 Blade sets for you. Your Blade set will have 3 pity Blades and a set of probabilities for each Rare to drop. Your pity Blades are pre-determined. The reason the pity system appears to stop working is twofold:
1. You already have all of the pity Blades pretty early on, so yes, the pity system turns off. It's done its job already. You can only get 3 specific pre-determined Rares from the pity system. It only exists to ensure you have at least some Rare Blades, not to make sure you get all of them. I personally think this is fine, I would leave it as-is but make Legendary cores give guaranteed Rares if I made any changes.
2. Each new Rare you get removes it from the list, making your odds of getting any new Rare go way down purely because you have one less Rare that could possibly be pulled. By the time you're a decent way into the game, you've pulled all of the most common Rares leaving only those irritatingly rare Blades like KOS-MOS.
It seems like people are completely misunderstanding the pity system. I mean, at least half seem to get it, but a lot of people are acting like the pity system is broken and stops working after a while.
When you start the game, the game will pick one of 5 Blade sets for you. Your Blade set will have 3 pity Blades and a set of probabilities for each Rare to drop. Your pity Blades are pre-determined. The reason the pity system appears to stop working is twofold:
1. You already have all of the pity Blades pretty early on, so yes, the pity system turns off. It's done its job already. You can only get 3 specific pre-determined Rares from the pity system. It only exists to ensure you have at least some Rare Blades, not to make sure you get all of them. I personally think this is fine, I would leave it as-is but make Legendary cores give guaranteed Rares if I made any changes.
2. Each new Rare you get removes it from the list, making your odds of getting any new Rare go way down purely because you have one less Rare that could possibly be pulled. By the time you're a decent way into the game, you've pulled all of the most common Rares leaving only those irritatingly rare Blades like KOS-MOS.
I think if legendary cores gave guaranteed rares, that'd be a bit op unless they drastically reduced their farmability. Which would be fine, I think. Or keep them as is and introduce one final tier (mythic cores or something) that are as rare as chest overdrives (so there are only half a dozen or so found around the game). I think being able to stockpile those and save them for your final six or so blades would drastically reduce frustration for a lot of players.
That's not even close to how it would work as a paid mechanic.
Fair enough. I guess The difference is so small to me that I don't feel all that concerned. RNG elements are RNG elements to me.
I just don't see how the potential to put in a bunch of effort to get nothing for it because you got unlucky (or the developered set crap rates to encourage grinding) can ever be considered an improvement over fixed rewards e.g. if you were getting rare blades exclusively from quests and boss fights instead.
So, if I got Perun and immediately after that I used another common core crystal and I got Gorg... Does that mean I got lucky and got 2 rare blades one after another or does that just mean that those 2 were my pity blades from the very beginning...
Within the first 100 hours or so, I had gotten all the rare blades except for Finch. It took like 20 lengendary and 60 rare cores before I got her. She was the blade I wanted the most. My friend got her with the first rare core that he used.
Great explanation, thanks! Sounds like something I don't need to worry too much about :)
Yup, I think it's time to get back into the first one, if I can remember how to play!
There is an implication here that I'll get them if I play the gacha.
Past attempts have determined that this is a lie.
No thanks. Future xb2 playthroughs on my end will be done as if kosmos/etc aren't in the game. Which, for most intents and purposes, is true anyway
I certainly didn't care after getting enough for my setup. I mean I understand post game rare hunt(I'm doing a bit of this) but I didn't stress over blades and it worked out perfectly fine for me