How do item drops work?

Discuss the original .hack video games: Vol. 1 and 2

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Lindz
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How do item drops work?

Post by Lindz »

Do monsters have their own specific set of drops? Or are items purely based on the area you create? Can every non-unique piece of equipment be found via treasure boxes or are there some which absolutely can only be gotten via Spring of Mysts? Whys it seems like equipment has a much lower drop rate in fields then in dungeons? So many times played, so many years of not knowing, so many questions!
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TheSorrow
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Re: How do item drops work?

Post by TheSorrow »

Lindz wrote:Do monsters have their own specific set of drops?
Yes. From common to rare to "you're not gonna get this" drops. Virus Cores are included.
Lindz wrote:Or are items purely based on the area you create?
Not that i remember, but most surely just the treasure chest/Gott statue ones. The area doesn't really affect enemy drops, though enemies are kinda related to each area anyways.
Lindz wrote:Can every non-unique piece of equipment be found via treasure boxes or are there some which absolutely can only be gotten via Spring of Mysts?
Nope. About half of them can ONLY be obtained via Spring of Myst. And those ARE affected by area and whether it's the Red or the Blue thing XD
Lindz wrote:Whys it seems like equipment has a much lower drop rate in fields then in dungeons?
No idea o3o You'll need to go to fields for the Spring of Myst though.
Lindz wrote:So many times played, so many years of not knowing, so many questions!
I haven't played these games in a REALLY long time, maybe 7 years or so, and honestly i'm not 100% sure of my answers XDD But it's just what i'm able to remember. And one of the things i remember quite well is that the Item Completion challenge was was all kinds of insane and long DDD8
Lindz
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Re: How do item drops work?

Post by Lindz »

TheSorrow wrote:Yes. From common to rare to "you're not gonna get this" drops. Virus Cores are included.
They can drop virus cores? I know there's some things ya can get by data draining baddies an VC's are included in that. I guess ta clarify I was asking about defeating a monster regularly without DD and then what comes outta the treasure/trap box they drop.
The area doesn't really affect enemy drops, though enemies are kinda related to each area anyways.
For scrolls at least, area does matter cause you'll get scrolls based on the areas element in 'em. I thought one of the keyword modifier things affected area item quality but maybe thats G.U. only?
Nope. About half of them can ONLY be obtained via Spring of Myst.
Ohhhh that's so annoying! I've never come across a definitive list out there which says what the spring-only items are so that in turn makes it hard for me to look for the droppable-only ones! As pointless as it may be I would one day like ta have an equipment list with an area listed for each non-unique, non-DD, non-trade stuff in the spirit of no equippable left unfound!
I haven't played these games in a REALLY long time, maybe 7 years or so, and honestly i'm not 100% sure of my answers XDD But it's just what i'm able to remember. And one of the things i remember quite well is that the Item Completion challenge was was all kinds of insane and long DDD8
Ahhh I replayed the series in 2012 and finished the item completion event! Truly was quite a slog x.x
Xu Yuan
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Re: How do item drops work?

Post by Xu Yuan »

I think TheSorrow is confusing the question...

Monsters do have unique "Steals" from using Data Drain, each monster can drop one of three items. Common, Rare, and Virus Core.

Aside from that Treasure Chests that Drop from Enemies are the same as any normal chest (except when Blue One drops, they are in a different category).

Now I'm not sure I buy that some items can only be obtained through the Spring of Myst. High-level weapons can be obtained from high level Gott Chests in their respective games without doubt. I tore apart the data of the game several years ago and found all of the information about items and item acquisition.

Each Level and Element has 28 possible normal items to acquire and 28 possible trap items, I think there are 6 possible (Elemental) Gott Treasures though for each level. I might be wrong on that however.
Lindz
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Re: How do item drops work?

Post by Lindz »

The items you can get in an area are directly related to the area level, but the enemies get stronger, and it gets pretty dangerous.
This post came up in Mutation but I dunno, doesn't seem real helpful. Especially since while I was replaying it earlier this month I was generally finding the same sets of equipment throughout the whole game despite ya know starting the game off at L30ish dungeons all the way up to the last story dungeon which is 48. Finding like a L27 armor in a 40-some dungeons just uhh annoying?
Xu Yuan wrote:Now I'm not sure I buy that some items can only be obtained through the Spring of Myst.
I gotta think this is at least true for weapons. Theres so many I've just never run across while playing the games without using springs.
High-level weapons can be obtained from high level Gott Chests in their respective games without doubt. I tore apart the data of the game several years ago and found all of the information about items and item acquisition.
Yups but then in the next volume those highest level ones can generally be found outside of the Gotts!
Each Level and Element has 28 possible normal items to acquire and 28 possible trap items
Ohhh that sounds so super annoying! Especially cause there've been times where I've gotten the same piece of equipment in a dungeon from both a regular and trapped treasure. Do ya know if there is a difference or not between field & dungeon drops? It seems like there might be but I could just be unlucky it my recent playthroughs.
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Re: How do item drops work?

Post by Xu Yuan »

Hmm, really? I know the last sets of armor you can get in //Infection is the Thunder Armor set, where in //Mutation I believe it's the Spirit Armor set and I don't recall really finding many Thunder Armor's outside the start of //Mutation. Now I think those 28 bytes of Treasure data is not just for Field or Dungeon, but instead some might be reserved to field and some possibly dungeon levels as well. It would take a more indepth exploration than I had done in the past...

Well this semester is almost finished so I might have the chance to take a look at it soon enough.
Lindz
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Re: How do item drops work?

Post by Lindz »

Xu Yuan wrote:Hmm, really? I know the last sets of armor you can get in //Infection is the Thunder Armor set, where in //Mutation I believe it's the Spirit Armor set and I don't recall really finding many Thunder Armor's outside the start of //Mutation.
I dunno, I just seem to remember seeing Quakebeast Fur popup alot while I was playing through Mutation but the latter half(?) of that games shorter then its first so maybe I just got mixed up while rushing through it.
Now I think those 28 bytes of Treasure data is not just for Field or Dungeon, but instead some might be reserved to field and some possibly dungeon levels as well.
That seems entirely plausible. 6 of the 28 are always those "The Fool/Moon/etc." scrolls regardless of area. Then there's 2 to 3 "area element" scrolls. On rare occasion Resurrect will come from a chest which I believe is the only non-equipment/scroll item to drop from them? Unless Fortune Wire counts lol. This brings things up to 8~10. So if theres an even 14/14 split the remaining stuff'd be equipment (more armor than weapon in my experience) which seems about right.
It would take a more indepth exploration than I had done in the past...

Well this semester is almost finished so I might have the chance to take a look at it soon enough.
Don't go outta your way! This isn't some super important thing many people'd care about these days if ever. But I think I'll try taking better notes while replaying the next two games ta see if anything of note becomes apparent!
Xu Yuan
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Re: How do item drops work?

Post by Xu Yuan »

Haha! But I love .hack// This is legitimately fun to discover all of these dealings. So there was one thing I forgot until I took a look at the data...

Each Item consists of 4 bytes.

XXXX YY ZZ

XXXX - Item Identification
YY - Type Identification
ZZ - Amount (00 seems to be "1" in many cases)

4 x 8 = 28

So that means that there are 8 Items per field that can be retrieved from normal treasure chests. Again, further testing will be needed to see if that also applies in dungeons. Though I have the suspicion that every level of a dungeon might drop it down to the next level, possibly.
Lindz
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Re: How do item drops work?

Post by Lindz »

Haven't done a whole lotta proper "research" yet but I have noticed a sorta recurring theme in the last game.

Breezing Farewell Virgin - Lv.89
Avenger, Lumberjack, Oak Staff, Sacred Spear, Rei, Cave Bear Hood (chests), Ultra Leg Mail (gott)

Great Law's Stray Bull - Lv.98
Sprite Hands, Narukikyou, Stealth Blade, Stream Sword, Divine Speed, Sonic Gloves (chests), Denial Greaves (gott)

Ran through these earlier today an ya know what? Everything but the Gott Statue goodies are end of the line Outbreak equipment x.x; Even when playing through its story mode I was just finding "old" loot. Which leads me to believe Quarantine is super stingy with its new gear! I wonder if any of it even appear as drops?

At least I can feel real safe saying that if ya find a piece of equipment in one place, it'll also be the same Server-Area in the next game(s) as well cause I've verified this with a good chunk of 'em.
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