Archon Shards

[DeeBell]

Archon Shard farm is a bit rough to say the least. Archon Hunts are a guaranteed drop of a Shard. But that's only one. We now have 55+ Warframe with more to come. Each can have 5 Archon Shards and we also can combine Shards to make more powerful combinations. So DE, why is there no good way to Shard farm?

Whether it's a mission or a vendor to help us get more Shards, whatever helps us get them consistently would make us happy. We have consistent ways to get Arcanes. Through your events, Eidolon Hunts, and certain missions that drop them. Why isn't there an event or a mission we all could do to farm Archon Shards? 

So whether a mission is created or a vendor with certain resources to farm, I think Archon Hunts should be changed from weekly to daily with the boss either staying for the week or switching between the three with the guaranteed drop of a Shard. Much like a sortie, Archon Hunts would be better off as a daily activity than a weekly.

[(PSN)slightconfuzzled]

I don't necessarily disagree with your overall point, but I feel as if you are requesting increased regularity, as opposed to consistency. DE is being pretty consistent with shards, and there are a few ways. Archon Hunts, Netracells, Bird 3, Elite Deep Archimedea. There is a hard cap on the maximum potential of Shards you can get in a week, So I understand that some may want more opportunities to earn them, but ehhh, I personally wouldn't generalise that as making all people happy. There are also general reasons why DE might be hesitant, for their own interests and player interests. 

For example players burning out, because they are forcing themselves to do Archon Hunts everyday, is bad for the player and bad for DE. Players who may be resistant or immune to the pull of reward taking more precedent than the enjoyment of the game, and knowing when to use more discretion and being okay with missing out on weekly or daily rewards, may then miss out on the freedom and discretion and rewards involved with more choices and options on a day to day basis but.... Thats relativity and in practice already, just on a weekly scale, rather than daily. Like I personally don't do Archon Hunts as much anymore, just because I don't have the time, and I do Elite Deep Archimedea more, but its still nice to have the option to do it weekly. If it were Daily reset I might personally like that, so I could do it more, but I probably wouldn't do it much more either. So the option would be nice... but I do think some people would burn out, and to be clear, thats their right and all that, but I understand why DE would be hesitant because they generally benefit more from longer term players that burned out players. Its a retention issue (with positive, neutral and negative aspects). 

[(PSN)Unstar]

1 hour ago, DeeBell said:

We now have 55+ Warframe with more to come. Each can have 5 Archon Shards and we also can combine Shards to make more powerful combinations. Why isn't there an event or a mission we all could do to farm Archon Shards? 

The Archon Shard system and the associated missions that reward Shards are intentionally designed to create a long-term farm that gives players:

• an incentive to keep returning to the game on a weekly basis to complete "end-game" missions
• a long-term goal that they can regularly and tangibly progress, while still taking years to entirely complete

And honestly, I think DE nailed it.  We want Shards, because we like more customization and more stronk.  But we don't need them, since all content in the game can already be overkilled without Shards.  So we keep coming to collect more and more of them, but not having them is fine and doesn't hold us back.

I totally get the desire to have it all now; I want everything now, too.  But what's also very satisfying to have is goals.  That's an important part of what makes a game thrive; players want to have goals to chase.  So while it may seem counter-intuitively, it's often helpful for games to have systems that limit the rate at which goals can be completed.  It's subjective, but I like the rate at which we accumulate Shards; I feel like I'm making meaningful progress every week, despite the fact that the overall goal won't be completed for years.

I hope that this helps to explain why Shards are the way they are, and hopefully that understanding makes it easier to accept the rate at which Shards accumulate.  I've got my favorite frames decked out in Tau-Forged, and it won't take long for you to do the same; the rest is icing. ^^

 

Additional: I doubt that DE will increase the frequency of anything that rewards Archon Shards to a daily mission, because that would exert an excess of psychological pressure on players to play every single day via FOMO, because Archon Shards are simply too enticing of a reward to pass up.  Weekly strikes a nice balance where players are encouraged to play regularly but with only 1/7th of the pressure.

Edited Wednesday at 12:36 AM by (PSN)Unstar
added last part

[Tiltskillet]

I feel Archon Hunts should give two shards per week.  Other than that I'm pretty happy with the acquisition system as is.  (There are lots of things I'd change about the system  outside of acquisition.)

[KitMeHarder]

I have been around since the inception of shards (just to put it out there), but I am swimming in them given we can get up to 10 shards a week now.

I am, however, swimming the wrong color shards. So while I'm content with how shards are now, I do kinda want the ability to transmute ~2 shards into a different color shard. After that, with all the improvements we've gotten over these 1.5 years, I'd be truly happy.

[Voltage]

24 minutes ago, KitMeHarder said:

I have been around since the inception of shards (just to put it out there), but I am swimming in them given we can get up to 10 shards a week now.

I am, however, swimming the wrong color shards. So while I'm content with how shards are now, I do kinda want the ability to transmute ~2 shards into a different color shard. After that, with all the improvements we've gotten over these 1.5 years, I'd be truly happy.

The problem with the value of slotting each color is because of how their bonuses interact with your arsenal. Because Shards are universal bonuses between all mod configs, and how undermined survivability has become, the Azure Archon Shards as well as the niche bonuses from Emerald, Topaz and Violet become less intriguing than general Amber and Crimson Shards. Yes, some Warframes benefit greatly from specific Shards universally (like Emerald Shards on Saryn), but in general, you're either making a universal choice with Amber and Crimson bonuses, or you're building around just one mod config. 

If you could more intuitively slot Shards per mod config, the Azure bonuses weren't so focused on Survivability (and moreso utility), and there was no Bile tax on experimentation, you'd have a much healthier variety of what you would be slotting. The niche options wouldn't feel like something not to bother with. In my honest opinion, they should allow moving Shards for free, and change up some bonuses. Azure could inherit the Effectiveness of Health Orbs, Casting Speed and Parkour Velocity stats while Amber replaces those with all Energy focused bonuses. This would increase the value of Azure Shards while still preserving Amber Shards as a key "Energy-focused" Shard.

I'm in the same boat as you with the following Shards slotted: 42 Tauforged Amber Shards, 42 Tauforged Crimson Shards, 5Tauforged Azure Shards, 6 Tauforged Violet Shards, 1 Tauforged Emerald Shard, and 4 normal Emerald Shards slotted. In my inventory, I'm currently holding 1 Tauforged Crimson Shard, 32 Tauforged Azure Shards, 2 normal Emerald Shards, and 2 Tauforged Emerald Shards.

As for the main topic, the acquisition of these is still poor in my opinion. Sure, as someone who's not missed one Shard it's not too bad. However, this system is essentially a portion of the mods system locked behind login days that you will never catch up on, which can become a major turn off to players as they discover them. I have no real good solution for this though, because it's really obvious that these are just another section of Mods like Arcanes are, but with their only defining characteristic being their acquisition.

Edited Wednesday at 01:31 AM by Voltage

[(PSN)GEN-Son_17]

2 hours ago, DeeBell said:

Archon Shard farm is a bit rough to say the least. Archon Hunts are a guaranteed drop of a Shard. But that's only one. We now have 55+ Warframe with more to come. Each can have 5 Archon Shards and we also can combine Shards to make more powerful combinations. So DE, why is there no good way to Shard farm?

Whether it's a mission or a vendor to help us get more Shards, whatever helps us get them consistently would make us happy. We have consistent ways to get Arcanes. Through your events, Eidolon Hunts, and certain missions that drop them. Why isn't there an event or a mission we all could do to farm Archon Shards? 

So whether a mission is created or a vendor with certain resources to farm, I think Archon Hunts should be changed from weekly to daily with the boss either staying for the week or switching between the three with the guaranteed drop of a Shard. Much like a sortie, Archon Hunts would be better off as a daily activity than a weekly.

As others have said, I think we need to be careful about trying to get DE to always give more of everything ASAP. Right now, we always have a good set of reasons to keep playing. Making them to easy and frequent to get is a great pathway to an unnecessary stale point. 

There's no rush at all. In time, you will be overloaded with them.

[ominumi]

The moment you need an Archon Shard to make a build viable, there's something wrong with the build itself. Warframe has existed long before Archon Shards was a thing. Builds that can clear Steel Path without Archon Shards. The same thing can be said about Umbra Forma.

[KitMeHarder]

13 minutes ago, Voltage said:

If you could more intuitively slot Shards per mod config, the Azure bonuses weren't so focused on Survivability (and moreso utility), and there was no Bile tax on experimentation, you'd have a much healthier variety of what you would be slotting.

I agree. I just offered the easiest solution for me to be satisfied, because more-often-than-not we'd be lucky to even get that.

[Lord_Drod]

At first I thought it would be optimal if shards were tied to loadouts, but that isn't really practical.  If I'm running vastly different shard setups, then likely I'll be running vastly different polarities, where I'd probably end up needing a second frame anyway.  Secondly, its definitely a nice feature to take advantage of by having 6 loadouts that all get to use your shard setup, instead of having to slot another 25 tau shards to get this feature.  I'd much rather just make a second frame, where I then have 6 other loadouts to work with that particular shard setup.

So it sounds okay, if all your polarities work out, which is very unlikely if you want vastly different shard setups.  Since shards are much harder to acquire than frames and formas,  it's much more ideal to have 6 different loadout options per shard setup, then having only one.  I like being able to switch between, molt, nourish, pillage, roar etc and have them all use a similar playstyle.

As for the topic, yes, we don't really get them fast enough to do much engagement, but even then, the shards aren't really that creative.  Outside of parkour, the rest is just boring damage, defense, or efficiency.  Parkour is offense and defense.  So I run Mirage with 5 tau parkour.  Casting Speed is also desirable.  Anything related to power strength, isn't really something I care about unless I'm trying to hit certain thresholds for abilities.  Boosted ability damage on a specific status type is something I definitely don't care about. 

Then there's corrosive stacks, and I don't really know whats going on with the status rework, but armor is definitely less of an issue now.  There's not many weapons or frames that just mass spread corrosive stacks, instantly, where you'd benefit from those stacks, and where you're also able to do viral or that method is better without viral.  If you need to strip, you're likely already using a helminth and if you aren't, you're running viral, which should be better.  

So usually you're ability killing or killing with weapons and for some older frames, the shards are nice QoL to make them work better I guess.  The ability killers usually need several things more than parkour, so strength, duration, and efficiency are useful on those frames.

[(PSN)Magician_NG]

The current chance of ten shards a week is alright (five through EDA, three from netracells, one from Bird 3, one from Archon hunt). Honestly, I'm at the point where I'd like to see DE add a dust system, similar to arcane dissolution. I've got 40+ basic blue shards I'd like to dust into colorless and flip into red or yellow. How about five for one, DE?

[MutoManiac]

I guess I’m one of the few who prefers blue shards and just keeps on getting yellow ones. Being able to change colors like some suggested would be great.

[RyllusPurple]

The stela grind is absurd. 100 to fuse, so you might as well just get the tau's and fuse them since fusion is just  sink.

[Raarsi]

I definitely wouldn't be opposed to to more ways of getting archon shards with maybe a hard cap on how many shards you're allowed to get per week that could even offer a potential catch-up mechanic with an overall weekly cap based on how many shards players have been able to acquire since they came out.  That would allow for players more agency to do what content they want to do for shards while not facing the issue of grind burnout.

Just because something is optional doesn't mean it shouldn't be inaccessible to players that can't do the current content to acquire them and be punished for starting content before others have.

[Chewarette]

13 hours ago, DeeBell said:

Archon Shard farm is a bit rough to say the least. Archon Hunts are a guaranteed drop of a Shard. But that's only one. We now have 55+ Warframe with more to come. Each can have 5 Archon Shards and we also can combine Shards to make more powerful combinations. So DE, why is there no good way to Shard farm?

Whether it's a mission or a vendor to help us get more Shards, whatever helps us get them consistently would make us happy. We have consistent ways to get Arcanes. Through your events, Eidolon Hunts, and certain missions that drop them. Why isn't there an event or a mission we all could do to farm Archon Shards? 

So whether a mission is created or a vendor with certain resources to farm, I think Archon Hunts should be changed from weekly to daily with the boss either staying for the week or switching between the three with the guaranteed drop of a Shard. Much like a sortie, Archon Hunts would be better off as a daily activity than a weekly.

What are you on about ? You can get like 5-7 a week with Netracells and (E)DA nowadays, which is a very good rate.

[DeeBell]

1 hour ago, Chewarette said:

What are you on about ? You can get like 5-7 a week with Netracells and (E)DA nowadays, which is a very good rate.

True. Only if you're lucky in Netracells. And those are limited to 5 a week along with the Archon Hunts. I'm proposing a much different way to get them a day than per week.

[Chewarette]

8 minutes ago, DeeBell said:

True. Only if you're lucky in Netracells. And those are limited to 5 a week along with the Archon Hunts. I'm proposing a much different way to get them a day than per week.

What you're proposing means we'd get 10-12 per week ? Won't happen

Edited Wednesday at 02:06 PM by Chewarette

[(PSN)Magician_NG]

33 minutes ago, DeeBell said:

True. Only if you're lucky in Netracells. And those are limited to 5 a week along with the Archon Hunts. I'm proposing a much different way to get them a day than per week.

Currently we have two guaranteed shards and a chance of eight more a week.

You want nine guaranteed shards and a chance of eight more a week?

Doubtful DE would allow that; you'd lose interest in acquiring shards inside a couple months.

 

Edited Wednesday at 02:31 PM by (PSN)Magician_NG

[(NSW)Scullkrusher]

My problem with archon shards is that you're charged a 30% bile tax everytime you want to try a different combination. You're even taxed if you want to keep the same shard but try another imbue effect. And bile is the most annoying helminth resource to farm in my opinion.

Imagine everytime you wanted to change out mods you were taxed endo. Eveytime you wanted to change out arcanes you were taxed vosfor. I wouldn't be so upset about it if they weren't treated so different than all the other upgrades. I'm fine with only being able to use them on one warframe at a time but you're taxed for moving them to other frames.

I'm actually okay with the rate we can acquire them. I do wish crimson wasn't so op compared to the other colors. If the others were more useful we wouldn't need to farm so many.

[(PSN)Magician_NG]

13 minutes ago, (NSW)Scullkrusher said:

I do wish crimson wasn't so op compared to the other colors.

Eh, red shards are good for reaching power strength benchmarks, saving mod slots. Or extending duration. I'd argue yellow shards are more valuable as casting speed, starting energy, and parkour velocity are all super-cozy. Needing yellow shards to make green shards boosts their value as well. Corrosive element on weapons, one green tauforged for +3 corrosive stack, plus viral on companions is the coziest meta.

[Xylena_Lazarow]

On 2024-06-25 at 7:16 PM, DeeBell said:

So DE, why is there no good way to Shard farm?

Because it's intended to take months to years, though I have to think many other players will do the same as me, put shards into their S tier Saryns and Revenants and such, then disengage. Waiting for time gates is not gameplay, and Bile is a chore that makes experimentation a tedious waste. At least there are more and better sources now, I quit the game entirely when it was just the Archon and that horrendous potato man dumpster fire, didn't come back until the potato shard was moved to Cavia.

[trst]

Aside from having Shards as a possible event reward at some point I wouldn't be expecting a daily source for years.

Though I wouldn't be surprised at seeing yet more weekly sources trickle in. Which would eventually solve the whole thing anyways. Spacing weeklies out over a whole week makes it a daily chance anyways. 

[(NSW)Scullkrusher]

Yeah I've actually gave it a second thought after I said that. Red is like the offensive and yellow are more utility. I do use them quite often too.

[TennoPain]

We have too much of it it should not be touched you guys cant have everything NOW