Help:Drop chances

How to read the drop tables on enemy and item pages, and how their chances are worked out.

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Every enemy page has a '''Drops''' table, and every item that enemies drop has a
'''Dropped by''' table. Both give each drop a plain chance, such as '''33%''' or '''Always'''.
This page explains what those numbers mean and how they are worked out.

== Step 1: does the fight drop anything? ==
Winning a fight does not always pay. The game makes one roll first, and only about '''half'''
of wins go on to drop anything. Fighting on a higher difficulty makes that more likely; a
Taunting Potion makes it less likely. [[Enemy loot|Loot]] explains that roll in full.

'''The chances in a drop table are for a win that does drop loot.''' Over many fights, you will
see a 50% drop in roughly a quarter of your wins: half of the time loot is rolled, and half of
those times it is that item.

== Step 2: the loot roll ==
When loot is rolled, the game rolls a six-sided die, and each face pays something. A drop's chance
is how many faces pay it out of six:

{| class="wikitable elderfield-table"
! Faces that pay it
! Chance
|-
| One face
| style="text-align:right" | 17% (1 in 6)
|-
| Two faces
| style="text-align:right" | 33% (2 in 6)
|-
| Three faces
| style="text-align:right" | 50% (3 in 6)
|-
| Every face
| style="text-align:right" | Always
|}

Some tables roll a different die as well, such as a 1-to-4 roll or a 1-to-100 roll. The idea
is the same: the faces that pay it, out of the faces there are.

== Step 3: a roll after a roll ==
Many prizes need two rolls in a row, and then the two chances are '''multiplied'''.

''Example:'' [[Bighead]] drops the Chestplate of the Dead God when the
six-sided die shows 5 or 6 (2 in 6), and then a second roll of 1 to 4 comes up 1 (1 in 4):

: 2/6 × 1/4 = 2/24 = 1 in 12, or about '''8.3%'''.

== Adding up ==
* '''The same item on several faces of one roll adds up.''' If one face pays 3 Mystery Meat and
  another pays 5, the table shows one row, '''3–5''', with both faces' chances added together.
* '''Separate rolls do not simply add.''' Where one fight makes two separate rolls that can each
  pay the same item, the chance of getting it at least once is a little less than the two added
  together: "not missing it on both". A 50% roll and another 50% roll give 75%, not 100%.
* '''Amounts''' such as ''1–2'' mean the amount depends on the roll too.

== The Notes column ==
{| class="wikitable elderfield-table"
! Note
! What it means
|-
| Once per save
| It drops the first time its roll comes up, and never again in that save. The note says what
that roll pays from then on, where it pays something else.
|-
| First 6 wins only
| It drops the first six times its roll comes up ([[Bighead]]’s Cleansing Balm is one). After that the same roll pays
nothing, or the other thing the note names.
|-
| Only while you have none
| It drops only if you are not already carrying one.
|-
| Under ''a potion''
| Only while that potion's effect is on you, such as the Blood Potion.
|-
| With ''"something"''
| Only once that part of the game is unlocked. Without ''"something"'' means only before.
|}

== When a chance has a second line ==
Some chances change with something you cannot see in the fight itself, such as how far into the
game you are. Those show the usual chance first and the changed one underneath.

''Example:'' [[Shopper]]’s Bloody Skin shows 22%, and underneath, 11% in the case it names.
In the Mall, Sewers and Old Woods, materials come from a roll of 1 to 100 early in the game, and
from a roll of 1 to 200 once the Old Woods news is out, so they get rarer. A Taunting Potion
takes 15 off that roll, which makes materials more likely.

== Luck ==
The chances assume '''no Luck bonuses'''. Luck buffs and the Slayer's Ring add to the six-sided
die before the game reads it, so the high faces come up more often: drops that need a 5 or 6
become more likely. Some drops need the die to come out at 7 or more, which only a bonus can do:
those say “Roll of 7+ (needs a Luck bonus)” instead of a chance, because how often you get one
depends on how big your bonus is.

== Different fights, different tables ==
Loot is rolled once for the whole fight, not once for each enemy you beat, and it belongs to the
'''group''' you fought. That is why every enemy in a group shows the same drops, and why one
enemy can have several tables, each headed '''Fought as:''' with the groups it applies to.

== Where the numbers come from ==
The chances are read straight from the game's own loot scripts, following every roll and every
branch the way the game does, so they are the game's numbers rather than anyone's estimate. If a
drop seems far more or less common in play than its table says, please say so on the enemy's
talk page. See [[Help:Shared wiki data|Elderfield Wiki:Data]] for how the wiki's data is gathered.
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[[Category:Game mechanics]]