Top 10 2014 - Destiny

A huge part of the Destiny experience is grappling with its randomized content — as with many loot-centric games, the difference between a good drop and a bad one can be nothing more than a roll of the dice. By its very nature, this sort of mechanic can lead to immense frustration when the odds don't go your way; something that has led a pair of Reddit users to crunch the numbers on when it comes to Destiny's Strikes and their rewards.

A player called 'beeray784' and his roommate played 200 Strikes from the new Roc Strike playlist, recording which mission was randomly selected and what rewards they were each given in the post-game each and every time. The sample gives provides some insight into what we can expect from dipping into the game's Strike playlist; both in terms of the most popular maps, and whether the post-game loot is worth the challenge.

Dust Palace came out as the most common Strike in the playlist, being randomly selected in almost a quarter of the 200 matches, and going on the longest same-map streak with eleven consecutive appearances. Cerberus Vae III and The Dark Below's The Undying Mind were the most infrequent Strikes, with each only amassing six appearances apiece.

The Devils' Lair : 24/200 (12% of the time) average completion time: 7:11, Fastest completion time: 6:15. longest same map streak: 5

Will of Crota : 25/200 (12.5% of the time) average completion time: 10:32, Fastest completion time: 9:21, longest same map streak: 2

The Summoning Pits : 28/200 (14% of the time) average completion time: 6:11, Fastest completion time: 5:32, longest same map streak: 2

The Nexus : 32/200 (16% of the time) average completion time: 5:31, Fastest completion time: 4:21, longest same map streak: 3

Winter's Run : 20/200 (10% of the time) average completion time: 8:55, Fastest completion time: 8:01, longest same map streak: 2

Cerberus Vae III : 12/200 (6% of the time) average completion time: 8:11, Fastest completion time: 7:16, longest same map streak: 1

Dust Palace : 47/200 (23.5% of the time) average completion time: 7:49, Fastest completion time: 6:15, longest same map streak: 11

The Undying Mind : 12/200 (6% of the time) average completion time: 12:11, Fastest completion time: 10:55, longest same map streak: 2

While the map stats are interesting, the real meat of this project is in its loot findings. The pursuit of new gear has driven many a Destiny player to extreme lengths — who can forget the hours many Guardians spent firing endless amounts of ammo at the entrance to the infamous loot cave. The game's Strike playlists are generally thought of as one of the best ways to farm for loot, and now we have stats to back that up.

The most common reward is a rare armor engram; on average, more than one of these blue polyhedrons dropped for each player on each Strike. Rare weapon engrams were the next most common, but they weren't awarded even half as often as the armor was. Beyond these rare engrams, rewards become a lot more desirable — and, as such, a lot less common.

A pie chart created from /u/beeray784's findings
A pie chart created from /u/beeray784's findings

Exotic weapons are the rarest of all Strike playlist rewards, with the two players receiving only eight between them. The specific weapons were two of the 4th Horseman, two Monte Carlos, an Icebreaker, a Hardlight, a Hawkmoon and a No Land Beyond. That's a fairly low proportion of the rewards — but, then again, these are some of the very best weapons in the game.

The amount of loot that players receive has long been one of the criticisms levelled at Destiny, and information like this will likely only serve to fuel the fire of debate. Do you think that it represents a fair reward for players digging (read: extreme grinding) into the Strike playlists? Let us know in the comments section below.

Source: Reddit