Increase Your Drop Rates!

The Question

With so much unique boss gear, as well as simply no auction gear with great benefits in combat, there have been countless Pirates farming various bosses around the Spiral. However, the price Second Chance Chests can quickly add up, and farming is clearly very time consuming. So, the question arises: is there a faster way at getting the boss drops you want?

The Idea

Ratbeard, a developer of Pirate101 on the Official Message Boards, described an interesting theory at how to acquire better drops. He mentioned that it may be possible to affect the loot roll through head-patting and stomach-rubbing before opening the boss’ chest. This seemed like a great idea to test out, so test it out we did!

First, a boss needed to be chosen with unique items in their loot table, along with several other pieces of no auction gear as well as less rare class-specific gear. There are plenty of bosses that fit this requirement - The Gorgon in Aquila was specifically chosen, as well as The Underdog in Marleybone.

The Procedure

In order to get a picture of how head-patting and stomach-rubbing affects drop rates, we’d first need to know the standard rate at which bosses drop their unique items! So, we farmed normally for our “control” data - this would help us later on when we would compare these results to our experimental ones.

We recorded data from roughly 30 runs, making note of how often we received gold, class-specific gear, no auction gear, and unique gear. After doing so, we moved on to the actual experiment, and recorded data from the same number of runs, this time head-patting and stomach-rubbing before opening the boss’ chest. Of course, we tried to keep as many factors constant as we could, with the intentions of only testing this one variable. Our results were quite surprising!

The Results

Below is a graph depicting our results. The blue bar represents the quantity of the specified item we received while farming normally, while the red bar represents experimental farming. We “cleverly limited the domain of the results” so that only 17 runs are displayed here, randomly* chosen.

*The definition of “randomly” may be slightly** stretched.

**The definition of “slightly” may also be stretched.

We also included a table below to compare regular farming to experimental farming. Our results clearly show that this new type of farming that Ratbeard suggested is worth trying out!

	Regular Farming	Experimental Farming
Gold	10	3
Class-Specific Gear	3	6
No Auction Gear	4	6
Unique Gear	0	2

Taking a closer look at this data, we can see that much less gold was received using this new strategy. We received twice as much class-specific gear and two-thirds as much no auction gear, much of which was actually very useful. Finally, while there is no unique gear listed in regular runs, the head-patting and stomach-rubbing strategy got us 2 pieces of unique boss gear in just 17 runs! That’s a 12% drop rate!

Of course, there’s still room for further experimentation on this. As said by Ratbeard,

“Because I don’t want to give away too much when it comes to loot rolls, you will have to experiment with both the rate and direction (clockwise, counterclockwise, and/or contrariwise) of the head patting and tummy rubbing.”

Conclusion

Have you been tirelessly farming for Gortez’ Axe, Buck Bronco’s Hat, or the Ophidian Spine Crest? The endless farming is now over! Just put this strategy in action, and you’ll find yourself getting these extremely rare items in no time!

As our results confirmed, boss loot may not be “purely random”. What farming methods have you tried out that increased your drop rates? We want to hear!

If you haven’t already seen them yet, we’ve teamed up with several other fansites to all create similar posts. Be sure to check them out - they all have great insight that can help you on your farming ventures.

Swordroll’s Blog - Jack Teach

Destiny’s Travels - Destiny Devoreaux

Pirates in the Sky - Evan Silver

Wizards Unite - Ian Sharp

The Simple Swashbuckler - Beatriz Abbott

Companion Spotlight: Hoodoo Cornelius!

With the addition of the Hoodoo Bundle, a new companion has made its way to the game: Hoodoo Cornelius. This companion is very different than any others we have seen thus far, due to a certain power that makes him a great asset to any team.

A Melee Witchdoctor?

Although it may not be very common, Hoodoo Cornelius is a melee Witchodoctor. Companions like these have been seen before (such as in the case of Nurse Quinn and Doctor Noh), though other melee Witchdoctors up to this point haven’t been so useful. Hoodoo Cornelius, however, changes that. Although he has several similarities to other melee Witchdoctor companions, most notable of which being his low stats, he has some original additions that make him quite a large threat in combat.

Epics

Hoodoo Cornelius starts with Relentless and can train three more Epics. Relentless 2 is clearly a very good choice on him, and, although he cannot train Relentless 3, he has other useful Epics in his pool. One tier of both Repel Boarders and Second Chance work very well; Repel Boarders will allow him to attack enemies who approach him and possibly follow through with several more Relentless hits, while Second Chance can give him another opportunity to hit an enemy that he misses. With his very low accuracy, Second Chance is a crucial Epic to have on him.

Unlike most companions, Hoodoo Cornelius can only learn four possible Epics, and, due to the other one being Witch Hunter (which is not so useful under normal circumstances), there isn’t a lot of room for variety on him. The Relentless 2, Repel Boarders, and Second Chance build seems to be very popular on him, and it definitely works rather well. An attack on a Musketeer enemy with low dodge can successfully trigger several Relentless Hits, and, if he does end up missing, Second Chance will let him keep attacking.

The Game-Changing Power

Although his power has an original name that hasn’t been seen before, the effect is exactly the same as an existing one: Reckless Frenzy. However, due to Hoodoo Cornelius being a companion as opposed to a pirate, as well as him being a Witchdoctor instead of a Buccaneer, you may find its use to be slightly different.

As Hoodoo Cornelius has very low accuracy, using his Reckless Frenzy power with a Swashbuckler in range is not such a good idea; it is likely that they will dodge early on, ending the series of attacks. Therefore, try to either increase his accuracy or lower the dodge of enemies before using his power. Bonnie Anne’s Scatterblast or El Toro’s buff are great examples of what you can use beforehand. Additionally, if you are a Privateer yourself, you can use even more buffs first so that it is very likely for none of the enemies to dodge a Reckless Frenzy attack.

Health is also something to consider when using this power. Unlike a Buccaneer, Hoodoo Cornelius does not have high health and cannot use Leviathan’s Call to protect himself against the incoming damage from each successive hit. At his highest level, you’ll find him taking roughly 100 damage per hit, which, clearly, adds up after several attacks. Even if he isn’t defeated by the time he finishes using Reckless Frenzy, enemies could finish him off very quickly due to his low dodge.

An effective way to deal with his low health is by using Valor’s Fortress on him before Reckless Frenzy. Doing so will half the amount of damage he takes from each attack - making it around 50 - so that he could theoretically attack twice as much as he normally could. He will also have much more health left afterwards, so that enemies would not be able to defeat him so easily, despite his lack of defenses. Even if you are not a Privateer, Valor’s Fortress can be found on many pieces of unauctionable boss gear. At least one item with that power is definitely worth farming for to maximize the potential of Hoodoo Cornelius.

Usability

In higher level worlds, Hoodoo Cornelius is a viable choice, though sending him out into the fight right away may not be such a good idea. Using some buffs first will help him to not be defeated until he can severely damage opposing enemies with his Reckless Frenzy.

However, his uses are not limited to questing - in fact, he becomes especially useful for farming. With so much unique looking gear dropping from lower level bosses, Hoodoo Cornelius is a great choice for speeding up these fights. Higher level Musketeer or Witchdoctor bosses are also great for him, as you will not even have to buff him much, if at all, in order for his Reckless Frenzy to take them out.

Whether you’re using him for farming, questing, or even for PvP, Hoodoo Cornelius is definitely a highlight of the Hoodoo Bundle. If you’re interested, be sure to check your local Walmart for a game card! More information on the Hoodoo Bundle and all of its contents can be found here.

Also, if you haven't seen it yet, be sure to check out Duelist101's coverage on Hoodoo Cornelius - they have some great tips that are sure to help you out!

From the Bleachers to the Track: Can't Rush Perfection

Hello again!

It’s time for the second installment of this derby series, and maybe the most important…training!

Make sure to check out the first part of this segment:  A Racer's Handbook

What You’ll Need to Know

The first thing you’ll need to know is what each attribute translates to on the derby course.

Strength=Cheer cost on Water

Intellect=Cheer cost on Clay

Agility=Cheer cost on Grass

Will=Cheer cost on Dirt

Power=How much total morale you have

The second thing you’ll need to know is the “level spots” or points at which the cost to cheer goes down.  Every 45 points a stat goes up, your cost to cheer on that surface goes down by 1.

*PLEASE NOTE: The stat corresponds to your MAX stat, not your trained stat. If for example, you have trained 235/245 on agility, 245 would be your MAX stat.*

                 Stat:                        Cost to Cheer:

 1-14                             10

15-59                             9

60-104                          8

105-149                        7

150-194                        6

195-239                        5

240-284                        4

285-329                        3

330-374                        2

375 and Higher            1

The next piece of information is optional, as it’s not as important as cheer cost, but, there is a table for power as well.  Every 6 points your power stat increases, you gain 1 morale.

*Same deal here, the stat corresponds to your MAX stat.*

Power:             Morale:

0                           40

6                           41

12                         42

18                         43

24                         44

32                         45

36                         46

42                         47

48                         48

54                         49

60                         50

66                         51

72                         52

78                         53

84                         54

90                         55

96                         56

102                       57

108                       58

114                       59

120                       60

126                       61

132                       62

138                     63

144                     64

150                     65

156                     66

162                     67

168                     68

174                     69

180                     70

186                     71

192                     72

198                     73

204                     74

210                     75

216                     76

222                     77

228                     78

234                     79

240                     80

246                     81

252                     82

258                     83

264                     84

270                     85

276                     86

282                     87

288                     88

294                     89

300                   90

Selfish Talents

You’ll notice on our nifty table, the max stats extend beyond 250. How is this possible, the max stat on a pet is 250?!  Well, you do this with the help of SELFISH TALENTS, aka, stat boosts or attribute boosting talents. Talents like Durable(+50 Agility), Crafty(+50 Will), Relentless(+65 Agility) etc.. are all useful in derby.

Having a pet with high stats already is very beneficial. Take for example a pet that starts with 225 agility vs. a pet starting with 240 agility. With Durable, the pet with 225 agility would be increased to a MAX of 275 agility, this would equal a cheer cost of 4. Now, do the same thing with a pet that starts in the 240 range. With the help of Durable, that pet would have a MAX of 290; this reaches the next “level spot” and gives our pet a cost cheer of 3 on grass.

It’s best to stack selfish talents when you train higher level pets. For example, with a pet that starts with 250 agility, Relentless and Durable together will increase your MAX agility to 365, which brings you to a cheer cost of 2 on grass. Add another talent that increases agility and you’ll have cost cheer 1!

Although it’s good to stack, it’s also good to balance the stats as well; this means you’re good on virtually all surfaces. A max stat pet with Durable, Relentless, and Crafty would be a pretty good pet. That pet would have cost cheer 4 on water, 4 on clay, 3 on dirt and 2 on grass.

So What?

So what? 4 is so close to 3 anyway, right? WRONG! Even a difference of ONE cheer can make the difference between winning and losing! Let’s take a pet with cost cheer 4 and 3 respectively and compare them. For the sake of this example, let’s say both pets have a power of 250 which translates to 81 TOTAL morale.

81/4=20.25, so you would get approximately 20 total cheers.

81/3=27, so you would get 27 total cheers!

That’s SEVEN more cheers than a pet with cost cheer 4! That’s HUGE in a race!

Training

Derby pets are tricky because you train them differently depending on what level you want to race them at. With that in mind, it’s best to know which level you want to race at before you even start training. If you wait, you could make a mistake and that perfect pet will no longer be perfect.

The first thing you want to do is find a pet with high stats and good abilities/talents. The best way to do this is hatch with already existing derby pets. But, if you’re up for the challenge, creating your own pets allows for endless possibilities.

As far as high stats go, you want all your starting stats to be at or above 240. This isn’t necessary, but certainly is preferable and will make your cost to cheer significantly better from the get go.

A general rule of thumb:

You want your lowest cost to cheer on a terrain that appears OFTEN. Take for example Grass vs. Water. While grass makes up a good portion of derby courses, water takes up almost nothing! It’s worthless to have a cost cheer of 1 on water if you’ll only be able to use it for 3-5 seconds a lap! Grass on the other hand is almost always an option and therefore would be more useful than water. Why have good cheer cost on a surface that only appears 10% of the time, when you can get that same cheer on a surface that appears 50% of the time?

As a result of that theory, my suggested “order” to training stats at the lower levels is as follows:

1.     Agility (Grass)

2.     Will (Dirt)

3.     Intellect (Clay)

4.     Strength (Water)

Teen

In order to maximize a teen pet, you’ll have to train one stat exclusively and put your “leftover” stats toward power.

Using my suggested order above, when choosing ONE stat to focus on, I would choose grass. But, that is completely your preference.

Once you choose a stat to focus on, find the game that focuses solely on that stat.  Since I like grass, the WC Dance Game (+4 Agility) is what I need.

For dirt-Way of the Ninja Pig(+4 Will) and/or Cannon Game (+4 Will)

For clay-Maze Game(+4 Intellect)

For water-Way of the Ninja Pig (+4 Strength) and/or Gobbler Drop (+4 Strength)

Once you find which game suits your needs, play ONLY that game, and do the best you can, it will make training go faster. Because…..for teen pets-NO MEGA SNACKS!

When it comes time to give your pet a snack, you’ll want to use snacks that focus on that same stat. This way you can maximize your cheer cost. Since I like grass, I feed my pets Spicy Popcorn(+4 Agility).

For dirt- Golden Biscuit(+4 Will)

For clay-Swirled Lollipop(+4 Intellect)

For water-Huge Ice Cream(+4 Strength)

There are other options when it comes to snacks, but just make sure it only focuses on that one stat. +3, +2, are all good as well, but these +4 just make the process go quicker.

After you train your pet for a bit, you’ll want to keep track of your trained stat. This is where those “level spots” come in. The “level spots” determine different times that your cost to cheer decreases. You want your cheer to be the lowest as possible, but you also don’t want to waste points. Take for example my teen pet. My teen pet has a max agility of 270 thanks to the help of durable (+50 Agility.) But look at our table, the cost cheer of 4 starts at 240, and then cost cheer of 3 doesn’t start until 285.  Since my max stat is only 270, it would be pointless leveling past 240 since my cheer cost won’t change. Therefore, I train the dance game(+4 Agility) until my agility reaches 240, then I stop. This prevents me from wasting points that aren’t benefitting my pet.

After I have maximized my agility at 240, I put my “leftover” stats in power, increasing my morale. I do this by failing the dance game (+0) so that I do not waste any stats, then proceed to feed my pet Fairy Cake(+4 Power).

You ideally will continue this until you reach 249/250 experience, but BEWARE, this is risky! If you accidentally feed a snack your pet likes or loves, or even the wrong snack entirely, it will cause your pet to level up and waste all the training you have done for a teen! So, be cautious when approaching that. It’s best to stop maybe 3-4 points before 250 to stay safe.

In the end, you should end up with a pet like this; maximize one stat entirely, with the rest filled in power:

Using this pet you would ONLY cheer on grass.

Adult

Training an adult is very similar to training a teen pet. What you’ll want to do is exactly the same, but instead of stopping to train power after your first stat, you’ll want to switch to a second stat. Let’s go back to our teen pet. Let’s say we just finished training agility to maximize our cheer. Now, we would move on to maximizing a second stat. Like it says on my little list up top, I would recommend training dirt next, but again, it’s a personal preference. So, at this point, since I would be training will, I would switch to playing ONLY the Cannon Game and feeding ONLY Golden Biscuit until I maximize my cheer. Once that happens, I can then finally switch to maximizing my power by failing the dance game and feeding Fairy Cake!

In the end, you should have an adult pet with two stats maxed and power maxed.  Using a pet like I described, you would cheer ONLY on grass and dirt!

Ancient and Up

These are the easy pets as far as training goes….but beware! Getting races for ancient and above is extremely difficult! Even though racing the higher level pets is fun, you’ll have to be prepared for the wait, and honestly, getting 6+ perfect talents instead of 2 or 4 for teen or adult is much harder.

Anyway, if you are looking to develop a higher level pet, you can use mega snacks because all your stats will end up maxed anyway. So, you can train it just like you would a PvP or questing pet! :)

Using a pet like this (With all stats in the 240 range) would allow you to cheer on ALL surfaces! 

Well, there you have it! Everything you need to know about training derby pets! Stay tuned next time for abilities!

~Vanessa Mythdust