Random Drop: Difference between revisions

* ''[[Final Fantasy IV]]''. Pink Tails. They are held by one enemy, found in one room, with approximately a 1-in-64 chance of encountering it ''and'' a 1-in-64 chance of dropping the proper loot once defeated -- and that's the only way to get the best armor in the game. For those of you who didn't study math, that's a whopping 1-in-4096 chance per encounter. This is ameliorated somewhat if you've accumulated a stockpile of Alarm items, which trigger encounters; in the room in question, they trigger an encounter with these particular monsters. This is made worse in the DS remake since the newly added optional bosses are impossible/near impossible without said armor... on all party members. Also in the DS version are Rainbow Puddings. Some people have attempted three days with none of it dropping... and some people get tons of pudding without even trying.

** Additional...fun in relation to pink tails. The only way to find the monsters that drop it in the DS remake is to use an Alarm item. Otherwise the room is completely clear of random encounters. So, at least now you have a 100% chance of encountering the enemy, right? Well, you now have a 1/64 chance of the Princess Flan dropping any item AT ALL, and a 1/64 chance of it being a Pink Tail. So the odds are the same (1/4096). But you can only hold 99 Alarms at a time, and each time you need more you have to trek ALL THE WAY OUT of the dungeon (or teleport), use your airship to reach the one shop in the game that sells them, and then walk all the way back to that one room. Remember, every 100 encounters, you have to spend 10ish minutes walking, even with the teleport and no random encounters. And the chance is 1/4096. Have fun spending on average 6.5 ''HOURS'' walking back and forth per tail. If you don't teleport, or run into lots of encounters, expect 13 or more hours just walking. And that's not even taking the fight with the flans into account.

** Played straight in the PSP collection, where the random drops are actually random again, but averted slightly in that it's more likely you get rare item from the [[Bonus Dungeon|Challenge Dungeon]] boss chests that're randomized and the worst item you can get is an X-Potion: however, you can't get any extra copies of any of the items, including Adamantines that're used to trade them for parts of [[Armor of Invincibility]] at the end of the game.

* ''[[Final Fantasy V]]'', like the other Final Fantasy games, has several rare drops. The Tinklebell is the most annoying, and belongs to [[That One Boss|Twintania]]. It's technically a 1/16 drop ratio, but Twintania's drops change based on whether it's in Normal form, or if it's in its Gigaflare form. The Normal form is the harder to kill of the two, and is the form that drops the Tinklebell.

** Don't forget that some randomly dropped items can be forged into new, powerful equipment. A whole range of different equips per item, actually. How does the game decide which you get? Randomly, of course!

** There are also the slot games that, while not necessarily "random", are a total pain to predict and give you some of the best stat-boosting items in the game.

* The quality of items found in chests in the [[Bonus Dungeon|Ancient Cave]] in ''[[Lufia]] II'' has no relation to the dungeon level. Not so in ''Ruins of Lore'', though.

** The first ''Lufia'' has the Might Sword and the Might Armor, both pieces of ultimate equipment and both rare drops.

** And in ''[[Mega Man Star Force|Mega Man Star Force 3]]'', there's "Illegal Data Aquisition". Overkilling random enemies or attacking bosses with a specific subset of cards (Non-elemental, non-time-freezing) and then not shifting into your super form will allow you to receive a random drop after battle. And it really is random. You could get almost any standard card in the game, or a bug frag for trading; but most importantly you can get Illegal Cards that are unobtainable every other way in the game. And there's more illegal cards than there are normal battle cards! The ''smallest'' pool of random drops for any enemy in the game, however, goes to the already stupidly rare and powerful v5 [[Bonus Boss|Bonus Bosses]], and that's roughly 30 possible drops; most enemies in the game can drop upwards of 80 different battle cards via IDA, so getting what you want can be ''extremely'' frustrating, nevermind that most of the ones you do want, you'll want ''5'' of!

* Refreshingly averted in ''[[Gothic]]''. If the player kills a wolf, and he has the 'skin wolf' skill, ''he will skin that wolf''. Of course, this doesn't stop people wondering exactly how much skill it would take to pull the wings off a giant mosquito, or why wolves only seem to have four claws, total.

* ''[[Dragon Quest VII|Dragon Warrior 7]]'' for the Playstation uses this one frequently. If you want a certain type of monster heart, you must play Memory at the casino or keep fighting monsters until one of them drops a heart. Otherwise, you can never transform into certain monsters.

* ''[[Monster Hunter]]'': this is one of the main extra difficulties in the game, for alomst ALL kind of loot and carves. For those not in the know, let me explain: let's take, for example, a well known offender, the Lao-Shan Ruby item. This item is necessary to craft some ''very'' good armors and weapons, and is only given by a monster named the Lao-Shan Lung. Unlike many others in this page, the odds are more decent - only slightly below 1%. Not so bad, right? Yes, except the Lao Shan Lung is a ''huge boss that always takes about twenty minutes to kill'', each time (since it's scripted that he can't die until he reaches a certain point, his health will stop going down no matter how much you attack it). Twenty minutes per attempt, with a 1 in 100 chance... sound nice? Well, then we'll get into Rathalos Plates and Rubies, and Heavenly Scales (which, by the way, you need ''several'' of to make anything from them)... and it's easy to see why one of the chief concerns of the Monster Hunter fanbase is finding the best ways to kill the enemies as quickly as humanly possible.

** Carried over for the [[Crossover]] in ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]: Peace Walker''. Rathalos drops plans for the Taneshigama, one of the most useful weapons in the game, and Tigrex and Gear Rex drop parts of the most powerful Co-op weapon in the game. With a 1% chance. Enjoy your grind.

* ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' has randomly dropped synthesis items, each one normally dropped by 2 different monsters. These items were needed to make the ''Infinity Plus One Sword'', but it is almost completely averted due to the amount that you can increase the drop rate of these items. (Even the rarest synthesis item could usually be found with a 1:5 ratio, aside from those that only came from chests)

* ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'' almost entirely averts this trope. Every item needed for a main line quest is always fixed, and even in ''Arena'' and ''Daggerfall'' where sidequests are randomly generated the item will be placed the minute the quest is accepted and won't move until you get it. In ''Morrowind'' and ''Oblivion'', which have no random quests, ALL quest items and artifacts (and even non-artifact unique magic items) have fixed locations. Then ''Shivering Isles'' came and introduced a quest that required you to collect half a dozen random drops. Needless to say this is the quest that usually stays uncompleted.

* ''[[Lost Odyssey]]'' has [[Item Crafting|Ring Assembly]] components randomly drop, but thankfully nothing important. Then the ''Seeker of the Deep'' [[Expansion Pack]] had to go ruin that by including some ridiculously good, ridiculously hard to get randomly dropped accessories.

== Turn Based Strategy ==

 

** Or by looking at the ''guaranteed'' loot given for completing a mission.

* ''[[Eternal Eyes]]'' has many different items available as drops, but one of the most valuable is Magical Puppets; they're the raw material for your [[Mons]], and each one you get equals a new unit. All monsters can drop them, but the chance is ''very'' low, and if you don't waste a turn opening the treasure chest it's in (no way to tell until you open it, of course), it stands a good chance of being destroyed by one of its former allies. A few chapter ends will simply give you a new puppet, so you ''will'' gain new units if you progress through the story normally, but if you want to expand your army further? Get to grindin'!