Drop Rates

Whenever you defeat an opponent, they have a chance to drop one or more items. In general, a higher perception stat results in items drops more frequently, although there are exceptions to this.

This bonus only applies to drops at the end of combat, but does not affect drops from e.g. non-combats or inventory item use.

There are many different categories of ways that items can drop:

Single 100% drop

These items always drop. Perception doesn't matter.

Example: Twisted Hound:

Awards

You found: hound dust (100%)

Single N% drop

These items have a n% base drop rate, plus any Perception bonus you get (see below). If the (base drop rate) + (perception bonus drop rate) is more than 100%, it will always drop.

Example: Dockhand:

Awards

You found: cup of Joe (40%)

(In this example, with a perception of 92 (= +60%), it will always drop.)

Combined drop group

There is a chance to get this drop, and if successful, all of the item in this group will drop.

Example: Filthy Bum:

Awards

You found: both of (55%): - brass knuckles - old switchblade

100% drop alternatives group

One of several items from a group will drop. Perception doesn't matter. Each item has a relative chance of dropping (which are not necessarily all equal).

Example: Slags Guard:

Awards

You found: (100%) - 1 containment helmet (1/3) - 1 containment suit top (1/3) - 1 containment suit pants (1/3)

N% drop alternatives group

There is a n% base drop rate of these items dropping, plus any Perception bonus you get (see below). If the (base drop rate) + (perception bonus drop rate) is more than 100%, you will always get one of these items. Each item has a relative chance of dropping (which are not necessarily all equal).

Example: Third Eye Ganger:

Awards

You found: (40%): - 1 brass knuckles (1/6) - 1 cheap pistol (1/6) - 1 heavy pistol (2/6) - 1 riot baton (2/6)

Multiple copies of a single item

There is a base n% chance plus the perception bonus of anything dropping. If successful, there is a defined distribution of the number of items that drop.

Example: Midgard Security:

Awards

You found: (30%): - 1 gas grenades (1/3) - 2 gas grenades (1/3) - 3 gas grenades (1/3)

Multiple copies of an item group

This combines several of the above categories. There can be up to three rolls in this case:

• Chance of anything dropping (n% base drop rate + perception drop rate)
• Number of items to drop
• Which items to drop

Example: Insane Bum:

Awards

You found: (10%) - 1 of (1/3 of the time) or - 2 of (2/3 of the time) of:     - half of a sandwich (1/3)     - ancient candybar (1/3)     - canned green beans (1/3)

Credits drops

Credit drops use a similar formula for drop rates. They can either be a 100% drop, or a lower drop rate plus your perception bonus. If any credits drop, a second roll is used to determine the quantity, using an flat distribution.

Examples:
- Dock Security has a 100% chance of dropping credits, with the amount a random number between 6 and 12.
- Third Eye Gangers have about a 60% chance of dropping credits, plus your perception bonus. If any drop, the number is chosen randomly between 5 and 25. At a high enough perception, you will always get 5 to 25 credits.

Item drop bonus from perception

NOTE: this is not certain to be the exact formula. MORE TESTING NEEDED. You can help collect data, by installing this greasemonkey script. Send Al (player #202) your logs! Thanks to Barton26, Valmo, PenguinPyro and everyone else who has contributed. We have over 28,000 fights logged so far, but still many opponents without any data! Every bit helps.

When rolling for an item or an item group that has less than an 100% drop rate, your perception affects the results.

The perception bonus might be calculated as follows:

(1 - 0.99^Perception) x 100%

This is shown on the following table:

Perc	Bonus %		Perc	Bonus %		Perc	Bonus %
0	+0		11	+10		92	+60
1	+1		17	+15		105	+65
2	+2		23	+20		120	+70
3	+3		29	+25		138	+75
4	+4		36	+30		160	+80
5	+5		43	+35		189	+85
6	+6		51	+40		229	+90
7	+7		60	+45		299	+95
8	+8		69	+50		459	+99
9	+9		80	+55		647	+99.9

Data Collection

I've started logging drop rates of opponents, using a greasemonkey script. I'll post approximate drop rates once I have 100 samples (~X%), and more accurate ones once I reach 1000 (X%). (This will take a while.) The data values listed do not include the perception bonus, so the true drop rate is the base drop rate plus the value from the above table.

(Possibly rethinking drop rate formula - data analyzed with above formula marked with *, new formula marked with †)