Shipment Gear Math
October 5, 2016 8:10PM
edited October 2016
I was just wondering about how much the "drop rate" would be by buying gear from shipments (like stun cuffs), equivalent to actual farming.. I've always heard that they are worth it, so I decided to do the math (go to the end for the answer).
With 1400 crystals, you can buy 28 energy refreshes of 50 crystals. 1 refresh has 120 energy, so 28 refreshes would be 3360 energy. 50 stun cuffs for 10 energy each would be 500 energy. 500/3360 is about .15, which means a 15% drop rate.
************What this means is that buying gear for 1400 in shipments would be the same as having a 15% drop rate, and in much less time. ************
I think the average is supposed to be a 20% drop, but I'm not sure. Essentially, this is an amazing deal because for a very similar drop rate, you don't have to wait however long it takes to farm. Most people already know this, but if you don't, instead of buying refreshes for gear like stun cuffs/guns, just save up to buy it from shipments, because it is a much better deal.
With 1400 crystals, you can buy 28 energy refreshes of 50 crystals. 1 refresh has 120 energy, so 28 refreshes would be 3360 energy. 50 stun cuffs for 10 energy each would be 500 energy. 500/3360 is about .15, which means a 15% drop rate.
************What this means is that buying gear for 1400 in shipments would be the same as having a 15% drop rate, and in much less time. ************
I think the average is supposed to be a 20% drop, but I'm not sure. Essentially, this is an amazing deal because for a very similar drop rate, you don't have to wait however long it takes to farm. Most people already know this, but if you don't, instead of buying refreshes for gear like stun cuffs/guns, just save up to buy it from shipments, because it is a much better deal.
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Didn't really do the math for the 300 crystal ones, only the 1400. Those ones are much easier to get tho, and you shouldn't really need to spend crystals on them
Terrible advice.
300/20 = 15 crystals per holo circle
1400/50= 28 crystals per stun cuff
You should buy holo circles and farm cuffs. The 300 crystals per 20 holo circles is a steal
I didn't do the math for that, I guess you are right. But farming 50 stun cuffs is so much more annoying than 20 of the holo circles. It might seem more efficient to buy the holo circles, but in many cases the stun cuffs just seem like a much harder farm with worse drop rates, that really make you hate your life. It just seems easier and quicker to farm 20 holo circles than 50 stun cuffs. I guess farm what you need more of, but both buys from the shipments are great deals. The cost difference is also extreme, so if you can afford 1.4k crystals, you should also be able to buy 300 in the meantime/
People will complain no matter what tbh, and I agree with you on that recommendation. The consensus seems to be that shards and mods drop at 30%, High end purple gear is around 15-20%, with a potential for much lower, and lower end purple is around 25%. I just usually go off those, as they seem close enough.
Something about your math seems off. Mind if I take a look? Let's look at it from a different perspective.
( 50 salvage/gear ) / 20% drop rate (salvage/node) = 250 node/gear. You must farm a node 250 times to get 50 salvage out of it at a 20% drop rate.
( 250 node/gear ) * ( 10 energy/node ) = 2500 energy/gear
( 2500 energy/gear ) / ( 120 energy/refresh ) = 20.833 refresh/gear. You will need 20.8 refreshes to farm enough salvage for one 50-piece gear.
Now, if each refresh costs you 50 crystals, then each gear costs ( 50 * 20.833 ) = 1041.67 crystals, if you farm it. If the drop rate is only 15%, then the cost rises to 1388.89 crystals. Either way, you come out ahead by farming instead of spending 1400 in shipments.
A 20-salvage gear takes only 8.333 refreshes. That equates to a cost of 416.67 crystals for each gear. More than 50% more expensive than buying it from shipments. Best to not farm these if you buy all your energy
But that's not the whole story. You get 120 free energy every day. That reduces the cost of farming both pieces. By quite a lot. If R is the number of refreshes you buy every day for 50 crystals, and S is the number of salvage you need, then the cost of node farming is:
C = S * 20.83333 * R/(R+1)
For 50-piece and 1 purchased refresh per day, it will cost you 520.8 crystals to farm one gear (in 10.4 days).
For 50-piece and 2 purchased refresh per day, it will cost you 694.4 crystals to farm one gear (in 6.9 days).
For 20-piece and 1 purchased refresh per day, it will cost you 208.3 crystals to farm one gear (in 4.2 days).
For 20-piece and 2 purchased refresh per day, it will cost you 277.8 crystals to farm one gear (in 2.8 days).
Shipments are more expensive in all cases when you consider free energy.
I rounded a bit which could change something. But what I am talking about is strictly buying refreshes vs. strictly buying from shipments. The free energy shouldn't be a factor because you don't have to buy it, and if you combine farming and shipments it will be more efficient. Even if the refreshes might be a bit cheaper, they are subject to terrible RNG which might cost in a bunch more. Buying from shipments is safer, as it results in a reasonable drop rate that is guaranteed.
I don't disagree with your math, but I wouldn't use the rate of 1 energy refresh/50 crystals
Instead I would use 1 energy refresh/100 crystals
This is because the 50 crystals refresh is such a steal that (i assume) everyone should be spending on these anyway. In other words, whether you decide to 1) buy with 1400 crystals in Shipment; 2) use the 1400 crystals to buy refreshes; or 3) give up farming cuffs...you are going to buy those 2 x 50 crystal refreshes anyway.
Therefore, I would use 100 crystals/refresh as the base rate. And the drop rate would become 30%, which is a steal.
Yep. Plus extra guild coins if farmed on the right day.
There are nodes where you can get 2 (useful) pieces per hit. For instance, I hit LS node 7A for the Holo Projectors because it gives me those annoying Syringes Mk4 as well (except now I buy those from the Raid store - sadly, Projectors aren't there).
I agree
Assuming various scenarios, for example the drop rate is i) 20% ii) 15%
And the various levels of refreshing, for example I refresh the 50x2 and the 100x3 how does that influence it? I'm pretty sure its more cost effective to just buy them in shipments considering those refresh prices, and it should be more so when I go to the 200s.
Anyway, again, interesting discussion.
While I don't doubt that a fair amount of that will be budgeted for farming hard nodes, that is a false equivalence: you should then compare buying shards in shipments as well, but the equation gets needlessly complex.
Mk V furnaces are always a good buy. At 1400 for 120 purple salvages they are almost a steal.
The rest don't seem worth it. Even without the free energy, you barely break even, and spending some of the free energy, it's always more expensive in the shipment.
As for time spent: unless you are getting more crystals than you can spend on cheap refreshes (iow: > 400 crystals per day), arena wins out in terms of time too.
The cash is minimal, 187k for 250 farms. If your are 80 and have been farming hard nodes for shards you have thousands of sin tickets, tens of thousands of droids but no cash to use them and the gear is low usage gear so you have hundreds.
I did the math a while back ago and if you are willing to spend 100+ a refresh then buy them in shipments if they show. I use left over energy from the 2x50 refresh on gear farming after I've farmed my shards I want which usually ends up to be 3-5 farms a day. If I have a toon I'm really wanting to lvl fast, I'll buy it if it pops up.
At the rate I'm going now it's about 800-1,000 bucks a year which is a bit ridiculous considering how much they messed up the last two major updates and I just get killed by guys spending 5k a month because the game is so unbalanced.
Everyone has their own acceptable risk levels. I happen to trust in RNGesus, and know that, in the long run (and this game is a very, very long run), statistics will prevail, making it more crystal-efficient to buy energy refreshes at 50 crystals each for gear farming than it is to buy the full gear from shipments. I will use my 120 free energy to supplement the gear farm to ensure this.
And the bonus energies? They can go to hard node farming for shards. I earn enough to concentrate on one character at a time.
The extra little stuff (gear, credits, droids, etc.) is delicious gravy that makes the gear farm even less expensive. You can add extra flavor to the gravy by choosing nodes that give little gear you also need, when possible. The credits are important during early game, but become mostly garnish at L80.
No way in hell am I including the cost of that stuff in the equations, too complicated.