Droprate buffs in Postknight: Loot Luxury vs Halycon Unearther

Like a lot of people still playing in the Postknight late game, farming for materials to max out every piece of equipment is one of the main time fillers for me. Even for people in early and midgame, maxing droprates is important (maybe even more so). And yet it can be hard to tell how much of an impact different droprate buffs are having as you play – e.g. is Loot Luxury really giving you that many more materials, and if so HOW many?

If Loot Luxury is giving you more items per run, is that enough of a boost to make up for the slow down in playthrough times from not using Blitz? Likewise, the Golden Harvest II bonus on the Halycon Unearther is definitely tempting, but does it work? and how does missing out on the combat and speed benefits of a lighter, more deadly weapon (say, a Feral Dagger for example) stack up? Is that 10% extra in item drops worth it?

To help answer these questions and decide for myself the ideal balance of speed and droprate maximisation for the best farming experience, (and to make myself feel like I was doing something useful rather than just spending countless hours playing a phone game) I devised an experiment:

Experiment

• Pick a level. I chose Cryptic Hollow because it’s a bit quicker to get through than the Fractured Forest paths (and I also just have a soft spot for Valley of Gold).

• Define the different sets to be tested. These are :
  • Test 1 – Baseline: Without the Halycon Unearther OR Loot Luxury. Using blitz and my usual favourite equipment (blitz, feral buffer, phantom crown, primal garb).
  • Test 2: WITH Halycon Unearther and all other settings as per baseline test.
  • Test 3: WITH Loot Luxuy and all other settings as per baseline test.

• Play each test configuration ten times on Cryptic Hollow and record run time, gold earned and total number of items found for each run.

• Average the ten runs on each test configuration to get an average run time, gold earned and total number of items found for each configuration.
• Compare the configurations. Declare the winner.

Results

Here are the averaged results from each test configuration. To see the individual data from each run, scroll to the Data section at the bottom of the article. All these tests were carried out while wearing the Fortune Ring and the Lucky Ring. I’m not sure if there’s a limit to how far you can increase the drop rate. If there is, this might effect the efficacy of items like the Halycon Unearther, and they may work better for players who aren’t using the rings. That’s just a complete guess though. If anyone without the rings wants to do a test of their own with the same gear to see the effect of the rings I’d love to see the results and could add the info to this post.But, all the details aside, here’s what I figured out:

Test 1 – Baseline

AVERAGE = 01’58”/98,572 gold/108 items

Test 2 – Halycon Unearther

AVERAGE = 02’22”/98,536 gold/108 items

Test 3 – Loot Luxury

AVERAGE = 02’42”/98,220 gold/133 items

What does this mean?

This means that Halycon Unearther failed to make any difference on item droprates, slightly reduced gold found and extended level time from 01’58” to 02’22”, making each run 20% slower.

Loot Luxury made each run even longer with an average runtime of 02’42”, slowing each level by 37%. But unlike the Halycon Unearther, using Loot Luxury DID increase item drops from 108 in total to 133 per run. That’s an increase of 37%, gaining in item drops exactly what was lost in speed.

Oddly enough there was a small drop in gold found with every run getting the exact same gold amount of 98,220 while using Loot Luxury. I’m pretty sure this is because of the reduced movement speed, which means I wasn’t able to hit any of the Cricle’s before they exploded meaning I missed out on their extra gold.

Data

City: Valley of Gold
Route: Cryptic Hollow
Gear: Feral dagger, feral buffer, phantom crown, primal garb.
Skills: Blitz, elusive cover.
Time/gold/total items dropped:
01’56”/98,540/106
02’13”/98,860/113
01’58”/98,540/115
01’46”/98,540/101
01’56”/98,540/112
01’58”/98,540/102
02’03”/98,540/117
01’58”/98,540/103
02’00”/98,540/118
01’54”/98,540/100
AVERAGE = 01’58”/98,572/108

City: Valley of Gold
Route: Cryptic Hollow
Gear: HALYCON UNEARTHER, feral buffer, phantom crown, primal garb.
Skills: Blitz, elusive cover.
Time/gold/total items dropped:
02’24”/98,540/113
02’28”/98,860/95
02’15”/98,220/116
02’18”/98,180/114
02’26”/98,860/113
02’28”/98,540/97
02’08”/98,220/114
02’22”/98,540/107
02’30”/98,540/ 111
02’24”/98,860/106
AVERAGE = 02’22”/98,536/108

City: Valley of Gold
Route: Cryptic Hollow
Gear: Feral dagger, feral buffer, phantom crown, primal garb.
Skills: LOOT LUXURY, elusive cover.
Time/gold/total items dropped:
02’47”/98,220/131
02’48”/98,220/131
02’36”/98,220/147
02’44”/98,220/126
02’45”/98,220/136
02’47”/98,220/131
02’37”/98,220/134
02’39”/98,220/133
02’42”/98,220/138
02’44”/98,220/124
AVERAGE = 02’42”/98,220/133

• Read the Postknight 2 Early Access Review.
• Check out our achievement guide for Kurechii’s farmhouse point-and-click puzzler, Chicky Duo.