Miku
vocaloid
I think it's highly underrated to play quests that can give a lot of chances to drop pattern 4 weapons as if you're using Viridia, Purplenum, or Skyly these can end up being insanely valuable if a good one drops, and pattern 4 greatly increases your chances of getting a good drop.
For reference, you can see the pattern drop numbers here: https://wiki.pioneer2.net/w/Weapon_attribute_drop_tables
So basically, anguish 1 greatly expands the possibilities and playing on Jungle East, Mountain, Seaside, CCA, Seabed Upper, Seabed Lower, Tower, Crater North, Crater Interior, Desert 1, Desert 2, and Desert 3 can all give all pattern 4 weapons. And yes you could play on Anguish higher than 1 but I find that it most likely takes enough longer that you get less good stuff per minute so I'd prefer to stick to anguish 1. You only need anguish 1 to reach pattern 4 anyways. Higher anguish doesn't change the pattern anymore which is literally the most important thing in the game if you want to get good weapons. See Miku's index of math for details.
Now, the next piece of the puzzle is that you need to defeat lots of enemies that drop weapons. If you weren't aware, each enemy has a particular type of item it drops. But most areas have a good mix of different types so it's hard to focus on weapons specifically. You want as many enemies that drop weapons as possible.
Now, the next piece of the puzzle is that the enemies that drop weapons need to drop something. To come up with an average amount of weapons you can expect from a quest, you'll have to multiply the number of each enemy that can drop weapons by its drop anything rate, as otherwise you get nothing.
You can see a list of weapon drop types and drop anything rates here: https://www.pso-world.com/sections.php?op=listarticles&secid=90
Now there is also episode 4 which isn't listed there but my assumption is that it's slower as ep4 enemies are just kinda stronger and harder to kill.
Finally, my suspicion is that you'd get the best odds simply from playing the hbr as the dar boost is quite substantial and you'll likely get a lot more items as result. So probably just playing LHP or PW3 would likely be the fastest way to do this currently, but what would be some quests that would be great at this in general, when the hbr ends? I'd like to know some good ones to try to farm these high % weapons on. Speaking of which, anyone can also feel free to let me know if they'd like to join me on these hunts but feel free to suggest quests for doing this even if you don't want to play them.
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Miku's index of math. Yes I know, this scares people, which is why I put it at the end so that if it does scare you, just stop reading now. You don't really need to know this. But let me explain just how much better pattern 4 is. Say you put a value on how many PDs a weapon is worth for each different hit %. Something like this:
0-50%: 0
55%: 2
60%: 6
65%: 20
70%: 50
75%: 150
80%: 400
85%: 1000
90%: 2500
95%: 6000
100%: 15000
Or something like that. Of course the numbers aren't exact because it's not even defined which of swords, mechguns, or shotguns you're hunting but it's still going to get the point across. Then, you can determine what is the average value of a weapon from each drop pattern by weighing each of these by the chances of it dropping on that pattern. So here we go:
pattern 0: 1/10000 chance of 55 and 1/10000 chance of 60, after tekking, assuming it has hit. So that's only 1/10000 * 2 + 1/10000 * 6 = 8/10000. As in, it's almost worthless on average.
pattern 1: 2/10000 chance of 55, 1/10000 chance of 60, and 1/10000 chance of 65. So a total of 4 + 6 + 20 = 30, or 30/10000 value on average. Almost 4x as good as pattern 0. But still nothing compared to what we're going to get to.
pattern 2: 7/3/2/1/1 chance of 55/60/65/70/75. So this would be worth 7*2+3*6+2*20+1*50+1*150 = 272, or being worth 272/10000 on average, or about 9x as good as pattern 1.
pattern 3: 25/16/3/2/1/1/1 chance of 55/60/65/70/75/80/85. So this will be worth 25*2+16*6+3*20+2*50+1*150+1*400+1*1000 = 1856, or being worth 1856/10000 on average, or about 7 times as good as pattern 2.
And now, the moment you all have (probably not) been waiting for. The absolutely huge number from pattern 4. It has a 201/41/12/7/4/3/2/1/1/1 chance of dropping all of 55 through 100. So this would be worth 201*2 + 41*6 + 12*20 + 7*50 + 4*150 + 3*400 + 2*1000 + 1*2500 + 1*6000 + 1*15000 = 28538 or being worth 28538/1000 on average. As in, being on pattern 4 is such a boost the average weapon you'll get of the type you're searching for that has hit, which is only 5% so don't get too excited, is really worth around 3pd on average. Now, keep in mind, that's probably an overestimate as likely most weapons are only going to be worth that much if they also have the change special or something (except swords) so you're not just going to become a photon drop millionaire overnight by doing this, but I think it's a very worthwhile farm that could give some really sweet weapons. And yes, 28538 is over 15 times better than what you'd get on pattern 3, so it's a humongous upgrade going to up anguish 1 in any of the areas that give you the pattern 4 weapons on an ID where you are likely to get them of a good weapon type. Speaking of which, you also get an increased chance of getting that weapon and an increase in dar from playing on anguish and it increase the chances of getting untekked weapons which this all assumes, so it increases your chances of getting good stuff by an astronomical amount even just from playing on anguish 1. Honestly you should always try to play on anguish 1 on these IDs over just plain vanilla ultimate any time you go to a potential upgrade to pattern 4 area. If you agree and followed all of that, congratulations, you're almost certainly someone I'd like to play with sometime.
Post-end lol:
On a different note, I'd also like to hunt for Rambling May, Heaven Striker, V101, Heaven Punisher, Spread Needle, and whatever else is good for anyone that would like to play with me. If you were on the fence about it from what I'd said before than maybe one of these will catch your interest.
For reference, you can see the pattern drop numbers here: https://wiki.pioneer2.net/w/Weapon_attribute_drop_tables
So basically, anguish 1 greatly expands the possibilities and playing on Jungle East, Mountain, Seaside, CCA, Seabed Upper, Seabed Lower, Tower, Crater North, Crater Interior, Desert 1, Desert 2, and Desert 3 can all give all pattern 4 weapons. And yes you could play on Anguish higher than 1 but I find that it most likely takes enough longer that you get less good stuff per minute so I'd prefer to stick to anguish 1. You only need anguish 1 to reach pattern 4 anyways. Higher anguish doesn't change the pattern anymore which is literally the most important thing in the game if you want to get good weapons. See Miku's index of math for details.
Now, the next piece of the puzzle is that you need to defeat lots of enemies that drop weapons. If you weren't aware, each enemy has a particular type of item it drops. But most areas have a good mix of different types so it's hard to focus on weapons specifically. You want as many enemies that drop weapons as possible.
Now, the next piece of the puzzle is that the enemies that drop weapons need to drop something. To come up with an average amount of weapons you can expect from a quest, you'll have to multiply the number of each enemy that can drop weapons by its drop anything rate, as otherwise you get nothing.
You can see a list of weapon drop types and drop anything rates here: https://www.pso-world.com/sections.php?op=listarticles&secid=90
Now there is also episode 4 which isn't listed there but my assumption is that it's slower as ep4 enemies are just kinda stronger and harder to kill.
Finally, my suspicion is that you'd get the best odds simply from playing the hbr as the dar boost is quite substantial and you'll likely get a lot more items as result. So probably just playing LHP or PW3 would likely be the fastest way to do this currently, but what would be some quests that would be great at this in general, when the hbr ends? I'd like to know some good ones to try to farm these high % weapons on. Speaking of which, anyone can also feel free to let me know if they'd like to join me on these hunts but feel free to suggest quests for doing this even if you don't want to play them.
-------------
Miku's index of math. Yes I know, this scares people, which is why I put it at the end so that if it does scare you, just stop reading now. You don't really need to know this. But let me explain just how much better pattern 4 is. Say you put a value on how many PDs a weapon is worth for each different hit %. Something like this:
0-50%: 0
55%: 2
60%: 6
65%: 20
70%: 50
75%: 150
80%: 400
85%: 1000
90%: 2500
95%: 6000
100%: 15000
Or something like that. Of course the numbers aren't exact because it's not even defined which of swords, mechguns, or shotguns you're hunting but it's still going to get the point across. Then, you can determine what is the average value of a weapon from each drop pattern by weighing each of these by the chances of it dropping on that pattern. So here we go:
pattern 0: 1/10000 chance of 55 and 1/10000 chance of 60, after tekking, assuming it has hit. So that's only 1/10000 * 2 + 1/10000 * 6 = 8/10000. As in, it's almost worthless on average.
pattern 1: 2/10000 chance of 55, 1/10000 chance of 60, and 1/10000 chance of 65. So a total of 4 + 6 + 20 = 30, or 30/10000 value on average. Almost 4x as good as pattern 0. But still nothing compared to what we're going to get to.
pattern 2: 7/3/2/1/1 chance of 55/60/65/70/75. So this would be worth 7*2+3*6+2*20+1*50+1*150 = 272, or being worth 272/10000 on average, or about 9x as good as pattern 1.
pattern 3: 25/16/3/2/1/1/1 chance of 55/60/65/70/75/80/85. So this will be worth 25*2+16*6+3*20+2*50+1*150+1*400+1*1000 = 1856, or being worth 1856/10000 on average, or about 7 times as good as pattern 2.
And now, the moment you all have (probably not) been waiting for. The absolutely huge number from pattern 4. It has a 201/41/12/7/4/3/2/1/1/1 chance of dropping all of 55 through 100. So this would be worth 201*2 + 41*6 + 12*20 + 7*50 + 4*150 + 3*400 + 2*1000 + 1*2500 + 1*6000 + 1*15000 = 28538 or being worth 28538/1000 on average. As in, being on pattern 4 is such a boost the average weapon you'll get of the type you're searching for that has hit, which is only 5% so don't get too excited, is really worth around 3pd on average. Now, keep in mind, that's probably an overestimate as likely most weapons are only going to be worth that much if they also have the change special or something (except swords) so you're not just going to become a photon drop millionaire overnight by doing this, but I think it's a very worthwhile farm that could give some really sweet weapons. And yes, 28538 is over 15 times better than what you'd get on pattern 3, so it's a humongous upgrade going to up anguish 1 in any of the areas that give you the pattern 4 weapons on an ID where you are likely to get them of a good weapon type. Speaking of which, you also get an increased chance of getting that weapon and an increase in dar from playing on anguish and it increase the chances of getting untekked weapons which this all assumes, so it increases your chances of getting good stuff by an astronomical amount even just from playing on anguish 1. Honestly you should always try to play on anguish 1 on these IDs over just plain vanilla ultimate any time you go to a potential upgrade to pattern 4 area. If you agree and followed all of that, congratulations, you're almost certainly someone I'd like to play with sometime.
Post-end lol:
On a different note, I'd also like to hunt for Rambling May, Heaven Striker, V101, Heaven Punisher, Spread Needle, and whatever else is good for anyone that would like to play with me. If you were on the fence about it from what I'd said before than maybe one of these will catch your interest.
