Artifact drops

[Laterite]

After farming for mods, I think I have a pretty good idea of how the drops work. The rank of the mod scales to the level of the relevant frame or weapon; so if you currently have a level 10 Laton equipped and pick up a Pistol Mod it will be around rank 10 (+ or - 3 ranks).

If you aren't using a relevant piece of equipment when you pick up the mod (ex, you're using a rifle and pick up a Shotgun Mod) it automatically scales to rank 1. Even if you have a level 30 Rhino frame, if you pick up a Rhino Mod while playing any other frame, that mod will be rank 1-4.

This is a bit frustrating because many 'specific' mod drops will turn out to be a "wasted" drop. It's even more of a bummer when you get a specific mod for a weapon or frame you actually use, but just wasn't using it at the time so now you're just sitting on a handful of blue rank 1 Boar Mods. Also your inventory will probably get littered with a bunch of rank 1 rifle or shotgun mods.

There's also the problem that you can effectively farm good mods of any rank from any mission. You can do the Alert Missions (that have level 1 enemies) with a full level-30-affinity-everything loadout; you go in and just swat flies then come out with new rank 27-30 mods.

I think the artifacts should just be dropped in a more standard way- you kill a level 17 enemy it drops a rank 17ish mod. In addition bosses could drop special mods that only they drop (not sure if this is already implemented, but I've killed Jackal and Golem a crapload and haven't dropped any mods that looked particularly special).

Edited December 26, 2012 by Laterite