Seasonal Archeotech Shard drops

3

Maybe this was explained elsewhere and I missed it, but I have a question about the Seasonal Archeotech Shards. The forging menu lists four types: Inferno, Warp, Magistratus, and Empyrean Echo Shards. Are they all supposed to drop at the usual shard rarity rates for seasonal characters, or does only one type appear in a given season? Or am I just in an unlucky mathematical fluke? 

I hadn't noticed seasonal shards before (maybe I just never advanced a seasonal character far enough to start getting them), but the only ones I can find are Empyrean Echo shards. I've advanced a seasonal character to level 72 (Tech Adept on PC - if that matters) and I have yet to find a single Inferno, Warp, or Magistratus Shard. 

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Seasonal Archeotech Shard drops
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2 years 314 days ago
SlowLane
I think Neocore has several reasons to keep them in the forging menu. People can still use them if they have old lower level seasonal shards in their stash - whatever you manage to accumulate during a season will be yours, so it's quite possible that many people have lower level seasonal shards that they might want to upgrade eventually.


Also, the console versions of the seasons are always a couple of months (~6 I think) late compared to the PC, so the interface updates for these shards are later used in the console seasons.


And then, it's probably more time consuming to update the forging interface every time a season ends to remove them than it is to just keep those old forging options in there. Maybe Neocore will just keep them there and simply do a cleanup after season 10 or something like that - it's probably not worth the effort to do it individually every couple of months. They have bigger fish to fry atm (King Arthur).


As for the drops, I'm doing another Viridian VC and the shards seem to be dropping normally again, so it might have been just bad RNG for me...

2 years 314 days ago
Lankester
Thanks. I thought that might be the case based on their names. It seems strange that they would all still be listed in the forging menu, but maybe that makes sense if Neocore is going to keep the same seasons in a repeating pattern. Even at level V their listed effects are nothing spectacular, so no great loss I suppose. 


Our Italian explorer friend did mention in patch notes that certain loot rarity rates had been adjusted upward for seasonal characters. Maybe the problem is more extensive than they've realized. Now that I reflect on it, it does seem that shards and cards are frustratingly rare for seasonal characters. My regular characters have so many VC cards piled up they could practically build a Dreadnought out of them. Whereas my seasonal characters can barely scrape together enough cards for a game of euchre with the bridge crew. 

 
2 years 314 days ago

Only the corresponding shards drop in each season, so in this one you will only see the empyrean echo shards. The other ones you mentioned were part of the previous seasons and were retired from the loot table when those seasons ended.


On this note, I would also signal to @MARCOPOLOCS‍ the very low drop rate of the seasonal shards (and shards in general). I'm not sure if it's a result of the various items' (uther's tarots and empyrean seals, I think) drop rate rebalance before the start of the season that might have had unexpected impact on other similar drops, or something else.


Even with the The Archeotech Vault tarot card on (tier 3), I often go several missions in a row without a single shard drop. Let alone the seasonal ones, which are the only ones I am after atm, to stock up on. It seems to affect the VCs too - doing a full clear of the hardcore Viridian VC gave me just a handful of shards - definitely noticeably less than before.