Hey to everyone, I've spent the last day testing something I heard heresay about. Someone, I can't recall who exactly, mentioned that you are more likely to find a specific type of gun if you buy more ammo upgrades for it. I spent the last day testing this, and I'm very happy to confirm this as fact. More ammo upgrades greatly improve the chances of finding guns that use that type of ammo! So, with a bit of testing, I aimed for the ultimate objective. I equipped the Hyperion Sharpshooter enhancement mod (a construct), used WillowTree to remove all my ammo upgrades save my repeater ammo (left it at 6), equipped my Scorpio Shield, and farmed Craw.
Results? Over a period of 5 hours, I received 1 Hyperion Nemesis and not one, but 3 Hyperion Reapers! I repeat: 3 HYPERION REAPERS!!! I have never found a Reaper ever, in any playthrough, with any character, with over 200+ hours of total playtime in Borderlands. Also bear in mind, that these are results are from solo play.
Therefore, for anyone looking to receive any specific gun, I propose 2 main strategies to farm for it.
1) Use Roland: Roland's Support Gunner class mod gives you the opportunity to farm without being forced to ration your ammo due to removing all your ammo decks. You may be restricted to farming for a specific weapon type instead of a specific Legendary, but this method is by far the easiest as it allows you to use the guns you're accustomed to and does not require any Loyalty Mods.
2) Coordinate by Loyalty Mod and Ammo Deck: This method is far more accurate and gives far quicker results, but requires all 4 characters at high levels, a loyalty mod for every manufacturer, and the ability to fight with no ammo regeneration (unless you're farming for Tediore guns), and very small ammo stores (assuming you need to use guns other than the type you're currently farming for).
I'm currently in the process of testing whether or not this affects Pearlescent drop rates. My new Nemesis says yes, but I want better confirmation. If so, this'll be the only confirmed method to increase drop rates for Pearlescents!
I'm keeping my fingers crossed, though I implore the community to join in and finally get the gun you really want in a legit way. Good Hunting! Sreza 08:08, November 8, 2010 (UTC)
0, 1 is the white ammo deck Sreza 09:10, November 8, 2010 (UTC)
- Utterly average, but they fit the expected result and all spawned within a 5 hour time span! Sreza 09:44, November 8, 2010 (UTC)
This maybe be the greatest thing I'm going to read today. Sreza, do some more testing and get back to us ASAP. A pearlescent spawning within 5 hours of farming is amazing enough, let alone the 3 reapers that are more rare on their own than some pearlescent guns. NOhara24 11:58, November 8, 2010 (UTC)
I can understand wanting to run the game unmodded to get gear, I do it with all my characters until the max out lvl. But you have to mod your character to do it why not just mod the guns? Farzenbobble 12:04, November 8, 2010 (UTC)
- Because strictly speaking you don't have to mod your character to do this. I rushed my Siren to level 61 in two days with only SMG and repeater SDUs, so I think it can be done with just the main weapon SDUs on Brick for shotguns and Mordecai for pistols as well. Roland is too obvious to mention with ammo regen across all types. nagy talk
log 13:30, November 8, 2010 (UTC)
It's been 4 more hours, farming Craw with my Brick using Torgue Loyalty with launcher ammo. I'd estimate that 20-25% of guns were a launcher, half again (or more) of those were Torgue models. I've found at least 1 of every Torgue Legendary gun, a Bastard that does over 500 damage, 2 Redemptions, 1 fire and 1 shock Rhino, a crappy Mongol, a lvl 67 Macho Shield, and a Cobra strong enough that i want to replace my new lvl 69 Kyro's Power with it. No Undertaker yet....
The ammo deck seems to double your chance of finding that specific gun type, but the Loyalty Mod gives a very obvious boost to your chances of finding a rare weapon. Sreza 12:40, November 8, 2010 (UTC)
If I may ask about the specifics, do you have to fight the entire battle with the weapon type and/or manufacturer, kill with the weapon type and/or manufacturer, or will simply having the ammo and COM setup be enough? Also, do you think this will work with the Armory? nagy talklog 14:59, November 8, 2010 (UTC)
It would make me happy if the OP actually started recording his results and started making a table instead of reporting by "feel" or estimating. Maybe you can take this on Nagy? NOhara24 17:43, November 8, 2010 (UTC)
I would, if my three-week-long finals didn't start in three hours. Once it is over however, I do intend to take this up. I've already Willowed my Siren. nagy talklog 03:38, November 9, 2010 (UTC)
I dont know about you guys, but I'm very skeptical. Yes, there is proof that loyalty mods increase drop rates for that manufacturer, though not set in stone, but the ammo decks, don't know. The fact that he found 3 reapers might have just happened by chance. He also said in five hours. I dont know about you guys, but in five hours of craw runs, I got about my second to sixth or seventh pearl. Also the rocket launcher, it is not a surprize that half the rocktes found were torgue, because half the rockets are made bye torgue and are very common. If its not torgue, there is a high percentage it will be a maliwan. I don't know, I might not really have a valid argument, but neither does Sreza. So until there is actual data, I'm just going to say its just chance. AFGHAN PSYCHO Talk 04:00, November 9, 2010 (UTC)
You're choosing to remain skeptical after he found 3 reapers (The reaper's rarity is greater than some pearl guns, FYI.) AND a Nemesis in under 5 hours? That's like stepping outside and looking up, and saying "Despite all the evidence otherwise, the sky is green. Simply because I say it is." If you have been looking around here at all, you would still notice that the occasional "I've been farming craw for X days straight and I still haven't gotten a pearl." thread still comes up. You're attempting to debunk his argument saying "there's no data" when it's right in front of your face. (Going back to the sky is green thing.) Bottom line, if anyone before him came on the forum saying "I found 3 reapers and a Nemesis in only 5 hours of Craw farming." we'd call them a modder and run them off the internets. What Sreza found is unheard of, and everyone on this forum (excluding you) has reason to believe the Random Weapon Generator can be manipulated after his findings. If you want to ignore facts, fine. But I think you would be better suited at FOX news then here. NOhara24 13:02, November 9, 2010 (UTC)
Ok. My opinion on this whole mess. I honestly think it was just luck. Very, VERY good luck. My reasoning? I don't mod and don't accept modded weapons or gear. And note that even if I wanted to mod, I can't due to the fact that I don't have internet. I'm usually on in school or at a friends house. ALTHOUGH! I do own one modded shield that I obtained a while back that reduces all damge taken to 0 (unless you're in a duel with a Hunter and they have the Trespass skill). And I thought to myself, gee, I'm only online on the weekends and Crawmerax is a raid boss, this could come in handy for the 4 days that I can't be online and farm Craw. But I do remove it during online play. Which may I add is not fun at all anymore and I might as well just stick with farming Craw solo with that modded shield because when I play online I'm looking for a fun challenging experience. Not an ok let's fucking do this oh wait did he just run up and shoot all of his limbs off deal. But asides from me ranting and getting back on topic. I was farming craw solo, I have all Ammo SDU's, I wasn't using a Loyalty COM. Just a Scavenger COM with +2 FRI. Within literally an hour and a half I found three Pearlescent shields. 2 Omega's, and 1 Rose. I mentioned this in a topic I posted, I think it was called 'My opinion on shit' or something. I have already given them away before the patch came out along with everything in my inventory and every legendary in my bank. I'm currently rebuilding my collection. But procrastinating because I don't see the point if someone's just going to 1up me with a modded weapon and make everything not enjoyable. Also I was also in the situation where I would farm Craw for long hours and not get anything but Defiler's and Equalizer's. I've always used a Scavenger COM with +2 FRI. My opinion on FRI. If Gearbox put it in the game and it's purpose is to "find rare items" by increasing the probability. Then it fucking works. No sense in putting it in the game if it doesn't fucking work. PSN ID: IAMSUCK_lol167.21.254.16 16:48, November 9, 2010 (UTC)
^That may have been the most incoherent thing I've ever read on this wiki. NOhara24 17:49, November 9, 2010 (UTC)
How is that "incoherent"?167.21.254.16 18:01, November 9, 2010 (UTC)
- Starts off saying the drops are just luck, then goes into being anti-modding, but using modded items. IDK i just kinda skimmed it.Beware the clap 18:26, November 9, 2010 (UTC)
- It's all gibberish. Not worth actually reading. NOhara24 23:00, November 9, 2010 (UTC)
I don't see why this wouldn't make sense. I mean, you already increase your chances of finding specific ammo by upgrading the sdu for that ammo, so why wouldn't it also apply to guns?
I am sorry to say that I will not be able to participate in any testing in the near future. For the next week I will be utterly bogged down with final exams, and for an additional week after that I will be out of town. Player8410 is trying to organize a mass community crawfish hunt. Maybe data could be collected from their runs? Sreza 14:46, November 10, 2010 (UTC)
I can try to collect some numbers, I've got 6 characters that a roommate and I are running up to level cap to test this with now, so after they're there I can start to compile it. Froznbreath 16:52, November 10, 2010 (UTC)
Do keep us updated Froznbreath. NOhara24 16:59, November 10, 2010 (UTC)
Been lurking around this wiki for about six months now...have something to contribute to this discussion. I've heard this theory before -- http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=6079 -- look at the 5th comment. Sadly the poster did not say where he'd heard it, but the idea is floating around. Cookies for anyone who finds the original quote. -- FearTheReaper
This bodes well towards bribing (if thats even the right term to use) the gear generator to "reward" you with a specific brand of weapon. But is it just me, or are the loyalty mods still half assed? My S&S loyalty mod for roland only has like half the shit working, and the stuff i want to work doesnt. ZomBiE 00:13, November 11, 2010 (UTC)
I think I mentioned this one. I only noticed and mentioned it because I normally keep all my guns with enough ammo that the game doesn't care and throws random, then I played split screen with a friend and he was always running out of shotgun ammo and everytime and enemy died it would throw out like three pieces of shotgun ammo and chests would have shotguns with more ammo. After to long I had to follow his suit since I would rarely find ammo for my guns except the shotguns. Also, I played through the whole story line on both play throughs with him and it did it everytime someone was low on ammo for a certain gun. Basically, just waste ammo on the gun type you want and it will be a bit more likely to appear since the game tries to throw the same types of guns as the ammo it gives and it will give ammo for which ever is missing it in mass. The game probably thinks if you're running low on ammo, you're using it alot, which means you like it and will give ammo and guns of that type. Anon8792 18:33, November 11, 2010 (UTC)
That would correlate a bit more with what I'm seeing. Been working on a new Lilith lately. As an experiment, I bought only the purple SMG ammo SDU. Not a whole lot of difference in the amount of SMG's I'm seeing. I am, however, seeing more of whatever gun I've been using most. Don't know if it's just statistical correlation, and I'm not dedicated or crazy enough to plot a table for it, but Anon8792's theory gels with what I've seen. FearTheReaper 05:20, November 12, 2010 (UTC)
First of all, to the ones who think its luck, dont just go off of things you have experienced without actually trying to gather data on if it works or not. This page reminded me of the challenges page (forum: things to do on Pandora when your dead) and I propose linking the 2 ideas:
Craw Farm Challenge[]
Beat the game without buying any ammunition SDU's. Farm craw 100 or more times and keep a list of everything you find. Buy ONE max sdu and farm craw again (the same number of times), keeping a list of everything you find. Then equip a loyalty mod and repeat.
That would be the one way we would know for sure, until then, no one can say "its just luck" because the same argument could be said for what good items they have found.
But that's just me :) I am the best robot 20:48, January 7, 2011 (UTC)
- Also, take screenshots of the items so we know you aren't lying.
23:08, January 7, 2011 (UTC)
OK, I'm on a PS3 system. How the hell can I take a screenshot?????You WILL die....I know...I did. 14:12, January 8, 2011 (UTC)