Today I really will head to reddit for a topic of conversation, based on a thread I just saw about some poor soul who has done 170 strikes and played 235 Crucible matches and not gotten a single new catalyst of those released this season.
That would be Hard Light, Prospector and Rat King, found in strikes, or SUROS, found in Crucible. All four catalysts were added to the game in the past few months, the final batch from year 1.
But this is something I’ve heard quite a bit from people, and there seems to be a divide between those who get them right away, and those who grind eternally and cannot find them at all. Something seems…weird.
While once upon a time, I too was one of the people failing to get the older strike catalysts after hundreds of attempts, that changed when the new ones were introduced. I got both the Hard Light and Prospector catalysts within my first five strikes after they arrived (I’m not eligible to find the Rat King catalyst because I don’t have it, sore subject, don’t ask). And I got my SUROS catalyst early on in the first few games of my Recluse grind.
Something definitely seems up here, and there are a few theories about what’s going on, and what can help or hurt your drop rates:
- Supposedly this season’s clan perk where you get an increased chance at catalysts from running with a clan is very helpful, although I did not and have not gotten this perk for my early catalyst grabs.
- There may be a greater chance to see the catalyst drop when you’re completing a daily or weekly milestone for strikes or Crucible (I can’t remember if this is how I got mine).
- Competitive Crucible or Iron Banner may give better catalyst drop rates than Quickplay.
- One theory I can maybe buy is that if you finish up your older unlocked, but not-completed catalysts, you may increase your chance at a fresh catalyst dropping. This was true for me as I have all my unlocked catalysts completed except the one for Worldline Zero which I genuinely forgot about and don’t want to spend weeks on by booping bosses.
Like all rare drops in the game, there should probably be some sort of bad luck protection on catalysts, so if you hit 50 strikes or whatever and haven’t gotten a single catalyst, you get a mercy drop. Or better yet, I would love to see specific objectives that lead us to these catalysts rather than relying on RNG at all. Maybe mini-pinnacle quests like 1,000 auto rifle kills in a strike for the Hard Light catalyst or 100,000 grenade launcher damage on bosses for the Prospector one.
But this does seem like something that could be bugged rather than being purely an RNG issue. I understand how RNG works, but I have heard too many stories of people like me getting all the catalysts the first week, and too many about people playing endlessly for weeks and not seeing a single one. I wonder if a person has done X or Y they have accidentally increased or eliminated their drop rates due to some sort of bug, and it seems like something Bungie may want to look into.
I would never wish the original, horrific strike catalyst grind on anyone, but it appears that’s what we’ve gone back to after Bungie supposedly bumped those odds a while back. Not that these catalysts are hyper essential (the Prospector one is pretty solid with the DPS that thing does, Rat King’s is supposedly good but I WOULDN’T KNOW), but I imagine it’s still frustrating for many.
I’ll look into this further and see if there’s anything else I can dig up. But if you’re suffering from this drought issue, you’re not alone.
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