The update notes have this cryptic line
• Some item drop rates have been adjusted.
There have been many rumors and speculation as to what that means in terms of nodestone, arcane symbol, and droplet farming.
Nexon Korea claims that the base drop rate for these things has been raised, but the effect of drop rate lines on equipment has been reduced. Some KMS players claim that even people without drop buffs have noticed a decrease in their collection rate.
The new drop rate buff formula has not been released, and people speculate that it's "like IED" in that it has heavily diminishing returns and an asymptote at 100%.
But as far as I know there is no proof, and even if there were, GMS is not required to do things exactly as KMS did.
So, I'm trying to find out some facts, assuming that Tespia rates are the same as the eventual live server rates we'll get.
For my first test, I killed 10k wolfruits with no drop gear, familiar, skill, or coupon of any kind.
On Kradia I got 1 nodestone. On Tepsia I got 7.
I did not find any arcane symbols in either server.
I'm aware that the sample size is apparently too small for an accurate assessment, but on the face of it it seems that the base nodestone drop rate did get significantly buffed.
I will continue to test this, and update this post. If anyone else feels like grinding as well, please do so and post your results below.
Edit:
10k wolfruits with Big Spider, on Kradia: 2 nodestones, 2 arcane symbols. On Tespia: 6 nodestones, 2 arcane symbols.
The Kradian results are as might be expected, but the Tespian are odd. Sample size is obviously much too small. But on the face of it, it seems the Big Spider familiar did nothing.
Comments
On top of that, accurate testing becomes a little tedious due to variance and that fact that most people farm nodestones, symbols and droplets with kishin.
I will add this reddit post, an excerpt from an interview/q&a with nexonKR devs stating that drop rate now has a cap of 300%
I intentionally tested with 0 drop boosts, for a start. This is to get the base rates in both servers/versions.
Next I intend to test with Big Spider (standard for unfunded in GMS) and later with 100% drop gear and Wolf Underling (might split that up in two phases if I have the time).
Thank you for the link to the reddit thread. Unfortunately it doesn't clear up much. The cap is 300% (on gear) but "changes were made so that additional drop rate multipliers will be applied in smaller increments" which is just confusing. If you have 300% on your gear, will you get 4x as many nodestones as someone who has none? Or will you get 4x as many potions and equips, but only 2x as many nodestones? Or will 300% drop on your gear not give you 4x of anything at all?
(I'm not going to be counting anything but nodestones and symbols for this testing I'm doing, but others are welcome to)
Continuing my testing, I killed 10k Wolfruits in Kradia, with 100% drop gear (120% for equips, because Greed Pendant), and collected 11 nodestones and 1 symbol.
(As a reminder: with no drop gear or spider I got 1 nodestone, and with only spider I got 2).
What?
I see two possibilities:
1. The old wives' tale about "lucky/unlucky channels" is true. If you're in the right place at the right time, you'll get a lot more of a rare drop than normal. I remember people using this to search for their lucky channel while Piece-of-Time hunting (pre-BB), or even when looking for the infamous Lunar Dews.
Only problem with this theory is that I killed 2k of those wolfruits yesterday (before the maintenance), and the rest today. I got 2 nodestones yesterday and 9 today, so it's a consistent drop rate.
Maybe that just means that I was extra unlucky when hunting with no drop gear (both with and without the spider?)
2. The effect of drop rate gear was calculated incorrectly. I have 5 pieces of 20% drop each, but what if the game has been counting them as 200% by mistake? That would make for 11x drop rate.
But in that case, Nexon Korea would have said that their "drop gear nerf" was fixing a bug. Instead, they said that they changed the way it is applied.
Anybody have more theories, or can offer more data (by number of kills, please, not "per hour")?
The issue is that nodestones supposedly follow a different formula with the drop rates than other items. If this were more transparent, it would be much easier to offer feedback.
No, currently the drop rate from equipment all adds up to one factor. This has been proven by old tests on more common items.
Meanwhile, today, I killed another 10k wolfruits in Kradia, this time with 100% drop gear and a 2x drop coupon (USE-type). I got 10 nodestones and one arcane symbol.
To sum up:
- No drop buffs = 1
- Big Spider = 2
- 100% drop gear = 11
- 100% drop gear + 2x coupon = 10
10 is quite a bit more than 4x1, but considering the very low base rate and the high variance of the Maple RNG, it's within reason.
That 11 with only drop gear is quite the outlier, though. I think it pretty much proves that "lucky streaks" do exist.